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MAGAZINE 

THOMAS E.WATSON, Editor. 



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WATSON'S MAGAZINE 

THE MAGAZINE WITH A PURPOSE BACK OF IT 



THOMAS E. WATSON . . . Editor 
JOHN DURHAM WATSON Associate Editor 
RICHARD DUFFY . . Managing Editor 



ARTHUR S. HOFFMAN . Assistant Editor 
C. Q. DE FRANCE . Circulation Manager 
TED FLAACKE . . Advertising Manager 



October, 1906 



Frontispiece, Portrait of William Randolph Hearst 

Editorials Thomas E. Watson 481-495 

At Fifty—It Would be a Noble Charity—The Populists 
of Missouri— The Money, the Money-Changer and 
the Politicians— Mr. Bonaparte and the Steel Trust 



The Independence League 

The Life and Times of Andrew Jackson— IV 

The Baron's Intended 

The Singer of the Ache . 

The Magic of the Invisible . 

The Farmer Landlord 

A Cure for the Gold Fever 

Money and Taxation 

The Doctor's Story-Chap. X-XU . 

November .... 

An Attic Populist 

Life .... 

A Great Human Principle 

The Currency Trust-Conclusion 

White Magic .... 

An Idealist 

The Railway Mail Service 

In After Years 

Alexander Hamilton Stephens 

Educational Department . 

The Coronation 

Home .... 

Letters from the People 

Books .... 

Lover's Pleading 

The Say of Other Editors 

News Record .... 

An Autumn Leaf . 

Along the Firing Line 



Charles 0. De France 

Thomas E. Watson 

E. V. Lockroy 

John G. Neihardt 

. George E. Woods 

Hugh J. Hughes 

. Alice Louise Lee 

. Mary Roberts Rinehart 

Florence A. Jones 

Ernest Hollenbeck 

Z. S. Hemenway 

Charles F'ort 

Flavius J. Van Vorhis 

Henry Fletcher Harris 

Margaret Busbee Shipp 

David A . Gates 

G. E. W. 

Zeno I. Fitzpatrick, .4.5., A.M. 

Thomas E. Watson 

Eugene C. Dolson 

Mrs. Louise H. Miller 

Thomas E. Watson 
G. E. Ward 



Charles Hanson Towne 
Charles Q. De France 



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530 
532 
543 
545 
548 
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559 
570 
572 
576 
58i 
583 
59o 
593 
594 
604 
616 
625 
626 
62Q 

637 
638 






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Entered as Second-Class Matter, February 16, 1906, at the Post Office at New York N Y 

under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 

Copyright, 1906, in U. S and Great Britain. Published by Tom Watson's Magazine, 121 West 42D Street N Y 

terms: $1.50 a year; 15 CENTS a number 






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WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST 
Independence League Candidate for Governor of New York 

(See Article Page 4951 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Vol. V 



OCTOBER, 1906 



No. 4 



Editorials 



BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



At Fifty 



THIS is Las Olas — he called it 
so, in the indulgence of that 
fondness for giving pet names to 
those things which one especially loves. 

He had already grown old when 
he chanced upon this spot — old and 
rich — and the joyousness of boyhood 
had come back to him, and he found 
pleasure in nature and his fellow- 
man. 

Peace to his memory! — he was 
as golden-hearted a gentleman as 
ever took a wage-earner by the hand 
and called him Brother. 

After him I came; and after me 
will come another — and so runs the 
world away. 



A narrow spur of land stretching 
from inlet to inlet, forming a ribbon- 
like island, closed in upon the east 
by the Atlantic, and on the west by 
the quiet streams that drain the 
Everglades — such is the place. Ages 
and ages ago the wash of the ocean, 
met by the wash of the rivers, banked 
up a ridge of sand, and upon this 
sand nature, in the long run of the 
years, planted a jungle; and in the 
tangled mazes of the jungle the deer 
tramped a trail, the wildcat found a 
lair, the raccoon made a home, the 
cougar crouched for squirrels, and the 
rattlesnake multiplied. Waterfowl of 
all kinds whirled and screamed as 
they flew from feeding ground to 
roosting place; and the red-bird, the 
481 



wren and the mocker were never more 
plentiful or musical than here. 

The ships, in stately procession, pass 
down from North to South; over 
yonder on the distant horizon you see 
the smoke or the masts of those that 
follow the Gulf Stream from South to 
North. Thus, upon the one hand, is 
the great world and the ocean ; on the 
other hand, there is the island route — 
by lake and sound and river — where 
traffic flows in safer ways and where 
no storm besets the sailor. 

Sit here on the wall of the boat- 
house, and gaze southward. A love- 
lier stretch of water the world does 
not hold — for the tide is still out and 
everything is water. A fringe of 
forest bounding the view southward, 
a thread of brilliant blue marking the 
spear-thrust which the ocean makes 
into the brown bosom of the river, 
the tossing foam which shows where 
the billows from the sea charge home 
upon the distant beach; and over all 
the mellow radiance of the sunny 
afternoon — for the tide is ebbing now 
and the sun is going down. 

All that the ocean could do, this 
time, has been done — forevermore. 
The outgoing currents drove back the 
lake and the river, mounting over them 
both, marching mile after mile land- 
ward, conquering mile after mile 
of reluctant ground — but the invader 
could only go so far and no farther, 
and he is now sullenly drawing back 
into the sea. 



482 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Great monsters of the deep followed 
the invading waters as they rolled 
toward the Everglades, and many a 
tragedy that was veiled by the waters 
could make you shudder at its story 
if the victim could speak of its cruel 
fate — but the monsters are drifting 
seaward now, and their battle of life 
moves to another field. 



If you glance over the island, you 
will see that the air is white with 
butterflies. There are countless thou- 
sands of them. They do not fly from 
flower to flower, some one way and 
some another, hovering aimlessly or 
lighting idly, here and there — as we 
dwellers in the up-country have been 
accustomed to see them do. These 
butterflies are all drifting in one direc- 
tion; these butterflies have no mind 
to stop; these butterflies neither hover, 
nor linger, nor dawdle; these butterflies 
go drifting by from North to South as 
though they had been called by some 
mysterious power, were fastened to 
some mysterious purpose, and were 
the helpless instruments of some mys- 
terious lord. 

All day long they have been flying 
by, over the jungle, over the beach, 
over the lake, over the sound, over 
the river — obeying some unheard order, 
following some unseen leader, answer 
ing some unfathomable design. 

I wonder what it will all be like 
when the last tide has rolled backward 
to the sea, and its monsters come forth 
no more — for I am fifty years old, and 
it is the time of the ebbing tide and 
the declining sun with me. 

I wonder whether those creations of 
the mind which some of us have 
thought important are, after all, as 
aimless and as fragile and as ephemeral 
as these butterflies which go streaming 
past, leaving no trace on earth, or sea, 
or sky — for I am fifty, and I should 
like to know whether all this effort 
of heart and mind leaves the world 
brighter and better, or whether we are 
just so many butterflies which Yes- 
terday did not have, and Tomorrow will 
forget. 



There is, at least, this much at Las 
Olas, and at fifty. 

If one needs rest from turmoil and 
strife, one can have it. If Hope does 
not come to us so often as she used to 
do, Resignation comes oftener, and 
stays longer. If Disappointment brings 
as bitter a cup as she ever did, we 
have at least learned that we need 
not drink every time we are tempted 
by Desire. If Ambition is as false a 
traitor as he ever was, we at least 
know that Duty is a certain guide. 
If Fame has mocked us with treacher- 
ous flatteries, she has treated us no 
worse than she treated the others; 
and we can, at least, quit following her 
and be content with the approval of 
the Voice Within. 

If the road has been rocky and the 
march has been marked with the blood 
of one's feet, we can, at least, reflect that 
the soldier always finds it so, and that 
the end of our campaign cannot be 
far away. 

Thus, after all, one learns philosophy 
at the best of schools, Actual Life. 



Who would be a drone in the hive? 
Who would be a deserter from the 
fight? Shall trumpets call strong men 
to the fields of human effort, and / 
play dastard? Shall flags float by, 
with brave soldiers marching forth to 
the service of Duty, and you play 
coward. 

Never, by the splendor of God! 

Better the march and the struggle 
and the heartbreak of failure than 
the selfish refusal to try! 

Better the battle, the good fight, 
and the defeat than the craven lurk- 
ing in the rear. 

Of all worthless, despicable crea- 
tures under the sun is the man who 
can only eat, propagate and rot; the 
venomous coward who hates other 
men because they have been bold 
where he was timid, strong where he 
was weak, loyal where he was false. 

Of all things contemptible is the 
man who follows with the hungry eyes of 
jealous rage and hate the bigger, loftier 
men who marched while he hung back, 






EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



483 



toiled while he looked on, fought while 
he ran away. 

Give me the man who will live and 
die for his ideals, who will surrender 
no righteous position without a right, 
who will perish rather than pollute his 
soul by apostasy from Right! 

Better — a thousand times better!— 
the tempest and the shipwreck with 
such a creed than the inglorious rotting 
at the wharf with any other. 

Better a Waterloo and a glorious 
death in the squares of the Old 
Guard than worldly pensions and 
honors for base betrayal of cause and 
country. 



So I thought at twentv. So I think 
at fifty. 

And I have the scars to show for it. 

And, like any other soldier of the 
wars, I am proud of them. 

Let the tide ebb — it must be so; 
let the daylight fade, it must be so — 
but this much any poor mortal can 
do, and should do, Hold aloft, to the 
very last, the banner of your creed; 
fight for it as long as you can stand ; 
and when you go down let it be possible 
for you to say to those who love you : 

" Lay a sword in my coffin, for I also 
was a soldier in the great struggle 
for humanitv." 



It Would be a Noble Charity 



With a liberality which is unparal- 
leled in the history of the world pri- 
vate and public charity is taking charge 
of the young people, and preparing 
them to make the future better than 
the present or the past. 

There never were so many training 
schools; there never were so many 
libraries ; there never were such golden 
opportunities for boys and girls. In 
almost every city education not only 
opens its doors at the knock of the 
child, but goes into the streets seeking 
the child and leading it to the school- 
room. Manual training, technical 
training, literary training, special train- 
ing for religious work, and every other 
kind of work, is busier shaping human 
instruments for the upbuilding of 
Christian civilization than at any pre- 
vious time in the progress of the human 
race. But there is one singular and 
appalling exception to the rule. The 
charity of the American world seems 
to wash the base of the mountains, and 
to stop there. For some reason which 
cannot be understood the mountain- 
ous sections of our continent have been 
left in almost total neglect. By the 
hundreds, we have seen libraries offer- 
ing the literature of the world to the 
humblest workers in our cities. By 
the dozens, we have seen lavish en- 
dowments made for such institutions 
as the Chicago University, Hampton 



Institute, Vanderbilt, Tuskegee and 
dozens of others. White children and 
black children, living amidst towns, 
cities and villages of the plain, have 
nothing to do but to rise up and walk 
in order to lift themselves from the 
helpless bed of ignorance, to throw aside 
the crutch of provincial environment. 

But the mountains are ignored. 
The golden stream passes by through 
the valley into the plains. From the 
pinnacles where you would naturally 
expect to see it wave there flies no 
flag of higher education. A more 
pathetic fact does not disturb the re- 
flections of the student of present con- 
ditions. In the mountains of the Caro- 
linas, of Georgia, of Tennessee, of Ken- 
tucky, of West Virginia and Old Vir- 
ginia, the tragic story is the same. 
The people in the depths of their pov- 
erty are left to struggle, unaided, with 
a hereditary ignorance. 

If there be any one portion of the 
population of the South which deserves 
greater charity at the hands of North- 
ern benevolence than any other, it is 
the people who live upon our moun- 
tains. They never were slave-holders. 
They never were Southern aristocrats. 
From the beginning they were hardy 
settlers who depended upon their own 
labor for their support, and who never 
in any way whatsoever asked or 
received any help from the Govern- 



484 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



ment. In the horrible trial of the 
Civil War these mountaineers, from 
the standpoint of the North, were true 
as steel ; Union men to the core. They 
not only resisted all the fiery appeals 
of secession eloquence, but when the 
bugles began to blow and the drums 
to beat they threw down the axe and 
the spade, or left the plow in the furrow, 
while they went forth to fight the bat- 
tles of the Union. 

No better troops followed Sherman 
and Thomas, Sheridan and Grant, 
than these loyal mountaineers of the 
Southern States. What has been their 
reward? They have been harried and 
harassed, provoked and mistreated by 
a persecuting internal revenue service 
which, pretending to serve the Govern- 
ment, was, more than anything else, 
an instrument of oppression in the 
hands of the Whisky Trust. 

Moreover, the charities of the world, 
so abundant to the whites of the cities, 
so lavish to the negroes, has been cold 
of heart and close of fist to the children 
of the men of the mountains. 

It is a God's pity that it should be 
so. It were a shame for it to remain so. 
In the name of one great portion of our 
population, which has already suffered 
sorely from the world's lack of sym- 
pathy, / implore the attention of such 
public benefactors as Andrew Carnegie. 
Let him direct his attention toward 
these mountain regions; let him study 
the condition of these people; let him 
remember how these mountain men rode 
their own horses, carrying tlieir own 
rifles, paying their own expenses, and 
dashed upon the British at King's 
Mountain and turned the tide of the 
Revolutionary War; let him remem- 
ber HOW IN THE NEXT ClVIL WAR THE 
SAME MEN CONTRIBUTED TO THE UNION 
ARMIES TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HEROIC 
SOLDIERS, WITHOUT WHOSE PROWESS 
THE BATTLE MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN 
WON FOR THE GOVERNMENT. 

A few schools, moderately endowed, 
adopting the plan of having the chil- 
dren partly work their way through, 
would do more for the future of our 
country than any similar amount of 
money spent in any other way. 



In that connection, I once more and 
most earnestly call attention to a school 
near Rome, Ga., where a noble- 
hearted woman, almost alone and 
unaided, has for many a strenuous 
year been struggling to break the line 
of illiteracy in the mountains of North 
Georgia. I do not know of any person, 
male or female, who deserves more at 
the hands of those who are willing to 
help in a benevolent work than Martha 
Berry, whose active brain mapped out 
the plan of her school, whose unfalter- 
ing courage has braved all discourage- 
ments, and whose tireless energv has 
brought it forward thus far, in its 
struggle for success. Read her letter 
which follows, and see what an insight 
it gives into that little world of hers, 
where so much could be done if she 
were properly aided. What she savs 
here as to the mountain regions of 
North Georgia is true likewise of the 
mountain people of every state of the 
South. 

August 29, 1906. 
Mr. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

My Dear Mr. Watson : Please pardon 
my delay in answering your kind letter 
of August 1 7 , which has been forwarded 
and reforwarded to many places before 
reaching me at home. 

I would be so glad to take the boy 
that you are interested in, but from the 
catalogue you will see that we do not 
take boys under fifteen; also, they 
must be poor country boys who cannot 
afford to go to more expensive schools. 
We are prepared to take 125, but we 
have had to turn away more than 200 
applicants for the fall term. I have a 
great task before me in raising the $50 
deficit for these 125 boys. I hope you 
will use your influence in interesting 
anyone that you can in helping me with 
at least one of these boys. Oh, how I 
wish Georgia people would help me — 
it would mean so much to me if I could 
get Georgians to become annual sub- 
scribers, so that the great responsibility 
of raising this deficit would not rest 
entirely upon my efforts, and I could 
solicit aid in the North and elsewhere 
for the enlargement of our plant. 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



485 



I wish you would visit us during the 
coming year and give the boys a talk, 
for I assure you that you have man)' 
admirers among them. 



Again thanking you for your kind 
expressions, believe me, 

Sincerely yours, 

Martha Berry. 



The Populists of Missouri 



There is a general feeling that the 
reformers should get together, some- 
where, somehow, in the near future. 
Those who are discontented with the 
present management of public affairs 
must agree upon a platform of essential 
matters, drop minor differences, and 
unite for action. A powerful senti- 
ment to this effect prevails throughout 
the Union. 

The People's Party in Missouri is rep- 
resented by some of the most intelli- 
gent leaders we have ever had. The 
address which they now propose to put 
forth seems to me to be as clear-cut a 
statement of our leading principles 
as anyone could desire. The pledge 
which they propose to circulate for 
signature is one which any citizen who 
is in favor of better laws and better ad- 
ministration can conscientiously sign. 
In behalf of our readers we present to 
them this address and the pledge. 



The Platform We Stand On 
i. Direct Legislation. 

2. Government Ownership of rail- 
roads, telegraph lines, etc., and Munici- 
pal Ownership of municipal utilities. 

3. The United States Government 
to issue all money and regulate the 
value thereof. 

4. The repeal of the present Nation- 
al Bank act and the establishment of 
a new system of Postal Savings Banks 
to be operated by the Government. 

5. Opposition to the monopoly of 
land, and the adoption of a just sys- 
tem taxing it. 

6. The adoption of the Parcels Post 
and Postal Note systems. 

7. The present system of Post-office 
censorship to be made subject to the 
control of the courts. 

8. The election of United States 
senators by direct vote of the people. 



9. The support of Organized Labor. 

These planks, as stated, are believed 
in by a majority of the American peo- 
ple, and if candidly considered and 
freed from all party prejudice, they 
would be enacted into statute law. 

Some of them are already in oper- 
ation in progressive New Zealand and 
Australia, as well as in some of the 
states of Europe, notably Switzerland. 

The arguments have long been made ; 
the practical operation of these prin- 
ciples has been shown, and it only re- 
mains for the American people to or- 
ganize into one party in order to share 
these advantages. 

Between the big grafters and the 
plundering manipulating politicians 
the rights and liberties of the people 
have been sacrificed until great dis- 
satisfaction exists throughout the 
country; and the people are deter- 
mined to go "house-cleaning." 
_ Encouraged by these manifesta- 
tions, the People's Party have deter- 
mined to renew their exertions for 
reform. Their method of work will be 
as follows: 

1 st — Associations called Referen- 
dum Clubs to be organized in every 
township and precinct. Members of 
clubs will either ratify or amend reso- 
lutions, policies or tickets, nominated 
in conventions, by referendum ballot. 
Result of said ballot to be tabulated by 
the officers of the Federated Clubs. 

2d — No person holding political 
office, paid by salary or fees, will be al- 
lowed to vote by proxy or otherwise, 
in such clubs or in convention of such 
clubs. 

3d— Each member to pay a small 
monthly or quarterly due, such dues to 
be held m bank by twelve trustees who 
have some regularly established busi- 
ness, profession or trade, by which 
they make their living, and who will 



4S6 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



regularly audit the bills, and pay out 
the same for campaign expenses. 

4th — The Secretary of Federation to 
receive all money handed over to the 
trustees and pay all bills by their 
direction. Secretary to be under bond. 

5th — The American Federation of 
Labor, 2,000,000 strong, has been until 
last year a non-partisan organization; 
now President Gompers.has advised the 
Federation to enter politics. It has al- 
ways indorsed the planks of the Peo- 
ple's Party platform. So have the 
1,000,000 citizens who voted for the 
People's Party candidate for the Presi- 
dency in 1892, and gained for him 
twenty-two electoral votes. These 
combined forces (2,000,000 from the 
American Federation of Labor) will 
make a three million start for 1808. 
The various farmers' organizations are 
also in favor of our principles and the 
platform which embodies them will 
sweep the country, because three- 
fourths of the rest of the people be- 
lieve in it; and it is only necessary to 
support our plan of organization in 
order to win in 1908. 

Pledge to be circulated to get signers 
and to extend the organization: 

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 
SHOULD*NOT CONFER ANY OF ITS SOV- 
EREIGN POWERS UPON INDIVIDUALS 



or corporations, to be used as an 
asset to their business 
The Platform We Stand On 

1. Direct Legislation. 

2. Government Ownership of rail- 
roads, telegraph lines, etc. , and Munici- 
pal Ownership of municipal utilities. 

3. The United States Government 
to issue all money and regulate the 
value thereof. 

4. The repeal of the present Nation- 
al Bank act and the establishment of a 
new system of Postal Savings Banks 
to be operated by the Government. 

5. Opposition to the monopoly of 
land and the adoption of a just system 
taxing it. 

6. The adoption of a Parcels Post 
and Postal Note systems. 

7. The present system of Post- 
office censorship to be made subject 
to the control of the courts. 

8. The election of United States 
senators by direct vote of the people. 

9. The support of Organized Labor. 
/ believe in the above principles. 

Name 

P. O. (city or town) County of 

R. F. D. Route 

Former politics 

Sign and mail to 

Hon. Alexander Del Mar, 
President Missouri Federated Popidist 

Clubs, Lock Box , St. Louis, Mo. 



The Money, the Money-Changer and the Politician 



On the last page of the first volume 
of Prescott's "Peru" the reader will 
find a statement which stimulates 
thought. The historian says that after 
the Spaniards had unearthed the hid- 
den hoards of the Incas, had stripped 
temple and shrine, and had flooded 
the open market with a swollen current 
of gold, it required twenty-nine thou- 
sand dollars to purchase a common 
horse, seven hundred dollars to buy a 
bottle of wine, three hundred and fifty 
dollars to pay for a pair of boots. This 
is nothing more than a vivid historical 
illustration of the truth that much gold 
means cheap gold, just as much wheat 
means cheap wheat.. Pizarro had less 



paper than was needed, more gold than 
local commerce required — hence Pi- 
zarro and his brother marauders paid 
one hundred and sixteen dollars for a 
quire of paper. 

Some of these days, when political 
education takes the place it deserves in 
the lives of men; some of these days, 
when our children are taught the rudi- 
ments of political economy and social 
ethics instead of being everlastingly 
crammed with Greek and Latin, the 
average citizen may come to know 
what a monkey the monev-changers 
make of him in the carrying out of 
their own selfish plans. 

Sparta rose to be a state of the first 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E WATSON 



487 



+Sfrc /: 



, 




class on a currency of iron; Rome be- 
came mistress of the world on legal- 
tender copper; coined silver did not 
come into use until the Northern bar- 
barian beat down her frontier; gold 
held no place in the coinage till the 
imperialism of the Caesars had taken 
its lead in her decline. 

How did the small island of Britain 
beat down and cage at St. Helena the 
mighty Napoleon — master of Conti- 
nental Europe? By throwing off the 
slavery of metallic money ; by exerting 
as a sovereign the sovereign power of 
Government to create money. 

Suspending specie payments in 1797, 
England poured into the channels of 
trade a hundred millions of her own 
currency — linen and paper— sent her 
gold and silver abroad to bribe the 
kings of the Coalition; continued to 
hire them to fight as often as Napoleon 
scattered them ; wore him out by sheer 
persistence; sent him to devour his 
own heart on ableakrockof the Tropics, 
and put back on the throne of France 
as rotten a ruler as ever called upon a 
people to worship " Me and God." 

After Waterloo, what ? The money- 
changer had his day. From the time 
that young Rothschild galloped to the 
coast to speed to London with the first 
news of the victory and to speculate 
upon it, the bankers entered into their 
own; and along the march they made 
from expanded currency to the single 
standard of gold were strewed more of 



the wreckage of humanity, more 
cruelty, more suffering, greater loss in 
life and property, louder wails of de- 
spair, deeper curses of class hate, than 
England had ever known in all the 
years of the Napoleonic struggle. 

Go read the history of that Tory, 
Allison, and note his admissions of the 
marvelous vigor and prosperity brought 
to all parts of Great Britain — to all 
classes, to all industries, by the abun- 
dance of money during the era of war. 
Go read McKenzie, McCarthy, Kneight, 
Aubrey, or any other historian of the 
nineteenth century, and study the 
record of widespread ruin after the 
peace — the riots, the pauperism, the 
bankruptcies, the drying-up of the 
fountains of prosperity everywhere. 
What did it? The soul had left the 
body, the life-blood had been drawn 
from the veins, the currency had been 
pumped out of the irrigation ditches of 
industry by a Government which bent 
to the selfish will of the money-changer. 

Always, everywhere, the money- 
changer is the same; he wants a cur- 
rency he can limit, control, expand at 
his pleasure, contract at his behest, 
thus ruling values with a rod of iron. 
So it was in England ; so it was in the 
United States. 

Fanatics on both sides of the Mason 
and Dixon line rushed us into civil war. 
Deaf to reason, blind to consequences, 
they sowed the soil, broadcast, with the 
dragon teeth of armed men which 



488 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



THAT THE GREENBACKS ARC 

to be redeemed m co/n - 
LEGal T£ho£r com- thc 
cold and silver of th£ 
const/tut/om and ths 
LAWS ' 




A^T** 



Morgan's spectacles. 



sprang up to drench the land with 
blood. 

What enabled the Union Armies to 
prevail? Go read the confessions of 
your Northern financiers and states- 
men that they could never have sus- 
tained the struggle but for Government 
currency which clothed and fed and 
armed and paid the soldiers who fol- 
lowed Thomas and Meade and Grant. 
Gold, the coward, had run to cover. 
Silver, the poltroon, had hid its head. 
National expenses jumped to one 
million dollars per day, then to two ! 

Where was the gold to pay it? 
Where was the supply of "coin" that 
would have sufficed? 

It did not exist. 

Spaulding, Chase, Thad Stevens — 
what did they do in that tremendous 
emergency ? 

They had the Government use its 
sovereign power to create money, cut 
loose from dependence upon gold, 
banked boldly upon the credit of the 
Nation and the patriotism of the peo- 
ple, flooded the parched fields of in- 
dustry with abundant currency, quick- 
ened every energy of the North, the 
East and the West with the life-blood 
of trade, and thus conquered. 



But the money-changer, what of 
him? He never varies. Call him by 
what name you will, Jew or Gentile, he 
is the identical creature that defiles the 
temple, trades on the misery of his 
country, puts greed above the prompt- 
ings of patriotism or humanity — Christ 
scourged him from the temple, and 
Abraham Lincoln said he ought to have 
his "infernal head shot off." 

The Government had to live, hence 
paper money had to be issued. The 
highest court in the land has" said that 
the power to create money out of paper 
was a constitutional grant. 

But the banker, willing that the 
soldier who shed his blood for the Union 
should be paid in paper, never intended 
that such a currency should be good 
enough for himself. 

Over the indignant protest of Thad 
Stevens, Congress discriminated against 
the soldier, specially favored the banks 
and declared that the Government's 
paper should not be good money when 
pay-day arrived for the bondholder. 
Good enough to pay the farmer for 
his wheat, good enough to pay the 
manufacturer for his cloth, good 
enough for the sailor who fought 
with Farragut or the trooper who 
fought with Grant, it was not good 
enough for the money-changer who 
skulked in the rear and speculated 
upon the ruin of his country. The 
bondholder must be paid in coin — 
hence the famous "Exception Clause'" 
in the Greenback law. 

Having told the world that Govern- 
ment paper should be inferior to 
"coin," Congress could not have been 
greatly astonished to see such currency 
sink below "coin" in the markets; 
and to prove how closely it studies 
the interests of the capitalist, the 
same Congress gave him the right to 
collect the depreciated paper in large 
quantities, and to exchange this paper 
at par for more bonds! 

Thus went the mighty national 
merry-go-round. Unprivileged mil- 
lions of common people used paper 
money, every hive of industry hummed 
with it, and the banker's vaults 
fattened on bonds. 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



489 




"When were the people so completely given over to the bond-grafters?" 



The war ends, vast armies are 
disbanded; the soldier is paid off in 
seven-thirty notes, and the musket 
is laid aside for the hammer, the 
trowel, the spade, the axe, the plow. 

The soldier has saved the Union; 
he has been the chief actor in the 
tragedy; he now steps off the stage 
and the money-changer begins. The 
"Exception Clause" has poured into 
his coffers practically the entire visible 
supply of gold and silver. The import 
duties are exacted in "coin," in order 
that the bondholder's interest could 
be paid in coin, and no capitalist had 
paid coin for bonds when he got them 
with depreciated paper. Thus the 
money-changer has all the bonds and 
all the coin. 

Now what? 

As long as that mighty reservoir of 
paper currency — some two billions or 
more — sends its irrigating streams to 



the uttermost parts of the Republic, the 
smaller hoard of metallic currency 
is powerless to assume the mastery. 
Money is abundant, is cheap, is free, 
is competitive, is beyond arbitrary 
control. This will never do; the 
quantity must be lessened; thus its 
value will increase; and, as population 
and business increase, the necessities 
of the industrial world will bring it to 
the feet of the banker. Plain? Of 
course it's plain. If you want to see 
it, you see it. 

Observe Congress; observe the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury; observe both 
political parties. At one fell swoop 
the notes which paid off the army are 
called in and destroyed! As fast as 
clerks can toss them into the furnace, 
they are burned — never to be reissued. 

Year in and year out the deadly 
process goes on — the money of the 
common people being called in and 



490 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



destroyed, until thirteen hundred mil- 
lions of the paper currency has gone 
into the fiery furnace. 

Is it any wonder that prices sunk, 
industry famished, bankruptcies mul- 
tiplied? Is it any marvel that panics 
tore their way from ocean to ocean, 
desolating, destroying? At last, at 
last, public indignation spurred Con- 
gress to action, and in 1878 the con- 
traction of the currency was halted. 

The snake was scotched, not killed. 
Wall Street bided its time. "Let 
well enough alone for a while ; Rome 
was not built in a day." 

So it rested until John Sherman, 
by a mere Treasury ruling, set aside a 
gold reserve of $100,000,000 for the 
redemption of the Greenbacks which 
had escaped the furnace. What act 
of Congress authorized this gold re- 
serve? None whatever. What law, 
what custom, what reason demanded 
it? None whatever. 

It was a mere ruling of a subordi- 
nate officer of the Government — an 
officer who was regarded as peculiarly 
the agent, representative and willing 
tool of the Rothschilds of London and of 
the money kings of New York. So far 
as the law was concerned, the reserve 
could just as legally have been made 
of silver. Or it could have been made 
of half gold and half silver. So far as 
the law was concerned, no reserve need 
have been set apart at all. It was 
only necessary that the Government 
should have enough "coin" on hand 
to redeem the Greenback when pre- 
sented; and as long as the Treasury 
reports showed that the Government 
had surplus funds by the millions for 
the free use of pet banks, nobody was 
likely to doubt its ability to redeem 
that' small remainder of Greenbacks 
— to wit, $346,000,000. 

A Government vested with the 
power to tax seventy billions of prop- 
erty was never in any danger from 
three hundred and forty-six millions 
of Greenbacks. The gold reserve an- 
swers no earthly purpose except 
to keep that much good money out of 
circulation. Locked up in the Treas- 
ury, it cannot compete with the gold 



of the banker — hence his friendship 
for it. There is not a fair-minded 
man on this continent who will refuse 
to admit that the Greenbacks would 
circulate just as well if there wasn't 
a dollar of gold reserve. Redeem the 
Greenback? Nobody ever wanted it 
redeemed until it was found that they 
could be used to compel an issue of 
bonds. 

Hungering for another Presidential 
nomination, Grover Cleveland at- 
tempted to explain his issuance of 
$262,000,000 in bonds; and the 
foundation upon which he based his 
labored defense is a misstatement 
of the law concerning this gold 
reserve. Mr. Cleveland says, through- 
out the article in the Saturday Even- 
ing Post, that the act of Congress for 
the resumption of specie payments 
required the Greenbacks to be "re- 
deemed in gold." Time and again 
he repeats this statement. I really 
believe that he believes it. 

Nevertheless it is untrue. He, a 
great New York lawyer, confesses that 
he did not know this to be the law 
until J. P. Morgan called his attention 
to it. Probably it did not suit the 
purpose of Mr. Morgan to remind him 
of another provision of the same act, 
but when President Cleveland "turned 
to the statutes and read the section," it 
is just a little bit queer that he did not 
read the entire act. Had he done so, 
he would never have published the 
amazing statement that the Act re- 
quired Greenbacks to be redeemed in 
gold. As plain as print can be, the 
words are that the Greenbacks are to 
be redeemed in coin — legal tender coin 
— the gold and silver of the Constitu- 
tion and the laws. It was not until 
the latter part of 1892 that Congress 
gave its implied sanction to the Gold 
Reserve of John Sherman, by directing 
that the issuance of gold certificates 
should cease when the reserve fell be- 
low the sum which Sherman had arbi- 
trarily named. 

Even when the lawmaking power 
did not declare that anything more 
should be done than to stop the issu- 
ance of certificates, if Congress had 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



491 



thought that other steps were needed, 
why did not Congress say so? While 
Mr. Cleveland was guessing at legis- 
lative intentions why couldn't he have 
guessed that Congress meant no more 
than it said? Why was he so anxious 
to wring out of that statute a meaning 
so grateful to his former clients, J. 
Pierpont Morgan & Company ? 

But let us concede for the sake of 
argument that Cleveland construed 
the statute as Congress meant it. How 
was he to dispense with the legislative 
power and give to his former clients 
the bonds they wanted? There was 
no deficit in the Treasury, there were 
no matured debts which we were un- 
able to pay, there was neither war nor 
rumor of war — how was he to start 
about giving to Wall Street those bonds 
which public opinion vehemently sus- 
pects were promised before election? 
How was he to dodge Congress, fore- 
stall the people, load the taxpayers 
with debt, and give the money-changer 
a heavy mortgage upon the Republic? 
By making a ruling which was brother 
to John Sherman's ruling, both rulings 
being lineal descendants of the contrac- 
tion policy which was checked, but 
not slain, in 1878. 

By ruling that Governmental notes 
which were payable in coin should be 
redeemed in gold only; by surrendering 
to the money-changer the option which 
the law vested in the Government; by 
giving to Wall Street both ends of the 
financial rope, until he himself cried 
out, "My God, Oates — the bankers 
have got the country by the leg! " 

Since civilized government was 
founded on this earth, when were a 
people so completely delivered over to 
the bond grabbers ? When and where 
was a national treasury so looted? 
With a thousand dollars in paper, a 
thousand dollars in gold was pulled out 
of the Treasury ; the paper was imme- 
diately reissued ; it pulled out another 
thousand dollars in gold; again issued 
it pulled out more gold, until the Gold 
Reserve cried aloud for succor; where- 
upon a bond issued from the Treasury 
went forth to seek the gold and bring 
it back into the Treasury, where it could 



not stay, because of the Carlisle ruling 
that "coin" shall mean gold, if Wall 
Street so desires. Endless chain; end- 
le s power to the money-changer; end- 
less impotence in the Government; 
endless burden to the taxpayers. 

Why was it that the Gold Reserve 
gave us no trouble under Harrison? 
Why was it harmless under Cleveland's 
first administration? The true reason 
is that " coin " still meant coin; and the 
scheme for compelling the issue of 
bonds by the endless chain process had 
not been conceived. While Mr. Cleve- 
land was guessing at the meaning of 
the act of 1890, why did he not attempt 
to discover what Congress meant by 
directing that after July, 1891, the 
Secretary of the Treasury should "coin 
as much of the silver bullion purchased 
under this Act as may be necessary to 
provide for the redemption of the 
Treasury notes herein provided for"? 
Was there any legislative meaning in 
these words? Would it be unreason- 
able to suppose that Congress meant 
what it said? If so, the law intended 
that the silver notes were to be redeemed 
by silver coins. Therefore, Mr. Cleve- 
land violated the plain letter of the law 
when he redeemed these notes with 
gold. In vain did Mr. Cleveland seek 
to find excuse for these bonds. To 
speak of "financial credit" and our 
"fair fame" is all poppycock when it 
is recalled that there was no strain 
whatever upon our credit and no 
smirch threatened our "fair fame." 
To say that one improves his credit by 
running into debt and mortgaging his 
estate, is a theory which only occurs to 
a President (a lawyer at that) who 
takes his knowledge of the statutes from 
J. P. Morgan. Does France know 
anything about financial credit and 
fair fame? Has she not been through 
the deep valley amid the thick dark- 
ness, and again mounted the highlands 
where all is light? Consider what 
that wonderful people accomplished. 
Hurled to the almost bottomless pit of 
disaster by the corruptest Government 
modern Europe has known; pressed 
down by German bayonets and by a 
war indemnity of a billion dollars in 



492 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



gold — how did she save herself from 
utter ruin? By cutting down the 
rotten tree of misgovernment ; putting 
the helm of state into the hands of prac- 
tical, honest, able men; treating gold 
and silver as equals; reserving to the 
Government the option of paying in 
either silver or gold as it saw fit , and 
supplementing metallic money with 
paper currency. Thus France paid 
Germany her billion dollars; thus the 
" parity" of the two metals was main- 
tained; thus her credit and fair fame 
were vindicated. The lesson might 
have been worth something to Mr. 
Cleveland had he been looking for les- 
sons. But inasmuch as his former 
partner, Stetson, was ready to write 
and witness the contract by which 
their client, the Morgan firm, was to 
get bonds at a lower figure than they 
could have bought the bonds of the 
little negro country, Jamaica, Cleve- 
land had no time for lessons. Bonds, 
quick, secret, cheap — cheaper than 
the bonds of many a New England vil- 
lage! 

Consider the picture, brethren. 
The New York law firm of Cleveland, 
Stetson & Company; their Wall Street 
clients, J. Pierpont Morgan & Com- 
pany ; then one of the law partners be- 
comes President and authorizes the 
contract, which the other partner 
witnesses, and by which the clients cf 
the firm get the bonds! Mr. Cleveland 
jauntily alludes to Belmont and Mor- 
gan as his "accomplices in crime." 
The words were well chosen. When 
he entered into that secret dicker with 
the bond syndicate to give them a 
profit of ten million eight hundredthou- 
sand dollars on that first lot of bonds, 
he was merely taking one more step 
in that program of special favors 
which had revealed itself in the deposit, 
free of interest, of fifty-nine millions 
of the people's money with the pet 
bankers , thus lavishing upon the same 
class the sixty millions in premiums 
on unmatured bonds; his desperate 
struggle to repeal the Sherman silver 
purchase act; his refusal to allow the 
Seigniorage silver used; and his re- 
peated recommendations through his 



secretaries to have the remainder of 
the Greenbacks destroyed. 

No, no — Cleveland hasn't got the 
silver craze, not he. Washington had 
it, Hamilton had it, Jefferson had it, 
Jackson, Benton, Webster, Clay, Cal- 
houn, Lincoln — they all had it — be- 
lieved in the equality of both silver and 
gold for money. Mr. Cleveland was 
free from that heresy. He believed 
that the banker should be allowed 
to supply the only paper currency, 
that the banker should be given the 
< redit of the Government in the shape 
of a bond, and upon this bond all paper 
money should be issued to the people, 
who will pay high rates of interest to 
get it. The people pay interest on the 
bond, the people pay those taxes which 
the holder of the bond is not re- 
quired to pay, and the people pay the 
interest on the currency issued on the 
bond. Thus the banker catches 'em 
on all sides, in every direction, going 
and coming. 

Instead of a hundred millions in 
bonds bearing interest and concen- 
trating untaxed wealth in the hands 
of a few, why should not the Govern- 
ment issue a hundred million of one- 
dollar Greenbacks costing nobody any 
interest, circulating among the many, 
messengers of mercy, stimulants to 
industry, advance couriers of progress 5 
Why should the Government abdicate 
its sovereign function of creating cur- 
rency and delegate that tremendous 
power to a class, which will inevitably 
use it for selfish purposes ? 

You may preach about abuses here 
and wrongs yonder, but until the Gov- 
ernment resumes its sovereign control 
of the currency and returns to the 
Constitutional system of the Fathers, 
"the leg" of the country will remain 
where Cleveland put it — in the hands 
of the bankers. And whenever they 
want to pull it, the Government is help- 
less. 

But for the unexpected influx of 
Klondike and other gold, and the in- 
vention for working low-grade ores, this 
country would, in all human proba- 
bility, have been plunged into ruinous 
conditions. Even now prosperity is 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



493 



far from being general; and the needs 
of a just distribution of wealth are 
sorely felt. 

Unsound, unjust, unbalanced, our 
financial situation is a menace which 
is just as sure to crash down upon the 
people as the laws of Nature arc to 
remain in force. 

Under our complex commercial sys- 
tem, where money is the breath of life, 
give its control to the banker, and you 
have made him monarch of all he sur- 
veys — king of the mid and the mine, 
the field and the forge, the railroad and 
the ship combine, the sea and the land. 
If he wants a panic he will give you 
one — as in 1893. If he wants prices to 
go up, he expands his circulation. If 
he wants them to go down, he contracts. 
He makes and unmakes governors, 
judges, Presidents. He makes and 
unmakes laws. If statutes get in his 
way, so much the worse for the stat- 
utes. 

And when he takes the trouble to show 
the President a law which the Presi- 
dent had never seen, and tells him that 
coin in that law means gold, the dutiful 
President becomes so full of the idea 
that the word "gold" is used in the 



statute, that he repeals a statement to 
that effect through many a weary col- 
umn in that most respectable vehicle 
of high-thought, the Saturday Evening 
Post. 



Politicians of both the old parties 
complacently assure themselves that 
the money question is not now an issue. 

Roosevelt is sure of it: Bryan de- 
clares it. Perhaps they are right, but 
here is one citizen who still believes 
that the late Alexander H. Stephens 
spoke the truth when he said that "if 
ever the people of this country come 
to understand the financial system 
there will be the greatest revolution 
the world ever saw." 

Once upon a time the two leading 
candidates for President of the United 
States agreed in advance that there 
should be no real, live, dangerous issue 
between them in that campaign. The 
results were disastrous to the two 
candidates. 

I commend to Messrs. Roosevelt and 
Bryan a study of that historic cam- 
paign. 

Its lessons may be repeated 



Mr. Bonaparte and the Steel Trust 



The relation which exists between 
our Government and the Steel Trust 
has been, for many years, a subject of 
disquietude to every citizen who has 
studied the facts. Not only have the 
millionaire owners of those great plants 
at Pittsburg, Homestead and Bethle- 
hem been allowed to fix such tariff regu- 
lations as gave them an absolute mo- 
nopoly of the home market, but these 
tariff regulations have been framed 
with such diabolical skill and selfish- 
ness that the steel millionaires have 
been enabled to sell their goods through- 
out the foreign world cheaper than 
they can be bought here at home. 

Besides, there has been scandal 
upon scandal with reference to frauds 
perpetrated upon the Government by 
the great manufacturers of steel. Some 



years ago the situation became so bad 
that investigations were ordered, and 
the late Admiral Sampson made an 
official report, after the fullest exami- 
nation, to the effect that Carnegie and 
his colleagues had defrauded the Gov- 
ernment to the extent of $275,000 
upon one battleship alone. Most of 
our readers, perhaps, have forgotten 
the "blow-hole" armor scandals which 
involved millions of dollars and threat- 
ened the integrity of our navy. Few 
of our readers, perhaps, remember how 
President Cleveland allowed Mr. Car- 
negie to escape with a purely nominal 
fine, when he and his confederates in 
fraud should have been severely pun- 
ished, and from thenceforth ignored in 
the letting out of Government contracts. 
Were our governmental business con- 



494 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



ducted on the same plane that a private 
citizen would do business, no further 
dealings would have been had with a 
corporation which was detected in such 
a swindle ; but our Government has its 
pets, its favorites, and no amount of im- 
position and wrong seems to be able to 
break the bonds which exist between it 
and one of these favorites. Therefore 
the great steel combine has pushed for- 
ward from year to year in its aggressive 
demands upon the Government, and 
there has never been a session of Con- 
gress in which millions of dollars were 
not dumped into the treasury of the 
Pennsylvania corporations. 

A great deal of the clamor for a large 
navy which has dinned the ears of the 
public during these latter years can be 
attributed to the hunger of the Steel 
Trust for more millions of public money. 
The citizen, in the innocence of his 
heart, believes that our lawmakers are 
solely intent upon building a strong 
navy to guard our coasts and our 
colonial possessions; whereas, those 
who have studied the case are keenly 
aware of the fact that behind all the 
push for a big navy is the insatiable 
appetite of the Steel Trust. 

Some years ago the late Senator Gor- 
man, who was well known to be one of 
the senatorial spokesmen of the cor- 
porations, had the hardihood to de- 
clare, upon the floor of the Senate, that 
if Congress refused to vote for addi- 
tional battleships, the Steel Trust would 
suffer in its business. It seems almost 
incredible that a senator should have 
made such a bold, bald, brazen plea for 
an unscrupulous and rapacious corpora- 
tion, yet the record of Senator Gor- 
man's demand is there to be seen of all 
men. 

But in the course of years* the enor- 
mous profits which the Steel Trust 
made out of Government contracts had 
the natural effect of arousing competi- 
tion. There were other steel manu- 
facturers who wanted some of the 
profits. Consequently the Midvale 
Company, an independent concern, 
began to bid for Government contracts. 
Year in and year out, for a series of 
about ten years, this independent com- 



pany has been underbidding the Trust. 
Consequently the price has steadily 
been forced downward by healthy com- 
petition. The Government and the 
people have been the beneficiaries. 

Not long ago Secretary Bonaparte 
asked for bids for the armor-plate of 
our new battleships. It was supposed 
that the lowest bidder would get the 
work. The Steel Trust knew that it 
would have competition. It was there- 
fore put upon notice to make its bid as 
low as possible. 

The bids are duly made by the Trust 
and by the independent manufacturers. 
Secretary Bonaparte opens these bids 
and finds that the Steel Trust, greedy 
as ever, has made its figures too high. 
The Midvale Company makes much the 
lowest bid and is, therefore, entitled to 
the work. Most people would have 
assumed that this ended the matter. 
The Government had asked for bids, 
stating that the work would go to the 
lowest responsible bidder; competitors 
entered the contest and made their 
bids, with their eyes open to the con- 
sequences; the independent company 
made a very much lower bid than the 
Steel Trust ; and this lowest bidder ex- 
pressed its willingness to make a bond 
of any kind to any amount which the 
Government should prescribe, for the 
faithful performance of the work with- 
in the time specified. 

Now, a most astonishing thing hap- 
pens. The managers of the Steel Trust 
hurry to Washington, closet themselves 
with Secretary Bonaparte, and, when 
the conference is over, the startling 
intelligence is given out that the Gov- 
ernment will divide the work between 
the Steel Trust and the independent 
company! 

How can such a deal as this be de- 
fended ? What power does the Steel Trust 
have over our Government that it can 
dictate successively to such Presidents 
as Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, and 
Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican? 
How is it thr.t Carnegie could escape 
punishment when the ranking admiral 
of the navy convicts him of monu- 
mental fraud; and how is it that Car- 
negie's successor, Schwab, can wring 



EDITORIALS BY THOMAS E. WATSON 



495 



from Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy 
one-half of a huge contract after he had 
lost in the competitive bidding for that 
contract? 

To say nothing of any other aspect of 
this very peculiar and very mortifying 
situation, the Government may be sure 
that it will never again have honest com- 
petition in the construction of its battle- 
ships. By taking away from the Midvale 
Company the legitimate results of its 
lower bid, the Government has as good 
as told the Midvale Company that 
hereafter it had better pool issues with 
the Steel Trust. Therefore, we have 
the amazing spectacle of a Government 
which is pretending to combat and 
break up the trusts, deliberately turn- 
ing upon its own tracks and doing that 
which stifles competition. 

When Secretary Bonaparte was 
chosen for his high position in Mr. 
Roosevelt's Cabinet, he went into office 
followed by the confidence and the es- 



teem of the overwhelming majority of 
his fellow-citizens, whether Democrats, 
Populists or Republicans; but by his 
strange conduct in this matter, by his 
peculiar surrender to the Sted Trust, 
by his taking away from competition 
the just reward which it already had in 
its hands, he has forfeited the good 
opinion which would still have been his 
had he allowed the Midvale Company 
to take the contract which it had won 
under the terms of Mr. Bonaparte's 
own advertisement. 

Suppose the Steel Trust had made 
the lower bid — does any man believe 
that Mr. Bonaparte would have given 
one-half the contract to the Midvale 
Company? 

Never in the world. The fact that 
the Steel Trust had the effrontery to 
demand half the work when it had lost 
all, demonstrates its insolent confidence 
in its mysterious power over the 
Government. 



The Independence League 

BY CHARLES Q. DE FRANCE 

The Ticket 
GOVERNOR — William Randolph Hearst, of New York. 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR— Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, of Dutchess. 
SECRETARY OF STATE— John Sibley Whalen, of Monroe. 
COMPTROLLER— Dr. Charles H. W. Auel, of Buffalo. 
STATE TREASURER— George A. Fuller, of Jefferson. 
ATTORNEY-GENERAL— John Ford, of New York. 
STATE ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR— Frank L. Getman, of Tompkins. 



ANEW political party was born 
in the Empire State on the 
1 2th day of September. What 
will be its baptismal name, or its nick- 
name during the years of adolescence, 
remains to be recorded; but during 
the period of gestation its parents 
called it the "Independence League." 
No one can deny that it is a lusty 
infant — at least no one who sat in 



Carnegie Hall Tuesday and Wednes- 
day nights and heard its birth cry. 
And if one may judge by the intensity, 
earnestness and sincerity of that cry, 
the youngster bids fair to grow up a 
giant. Even now two senile political 
parties are "scared out of their boots" 
by the noise. 

The mayoralty campaign of 1905 in 
New York City is a matter of history 



496 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



familiar to our readers. There seems 
no doubt in the mind of every unpreju- 
diced person cognizant of the facts that 
William Randolph Hearst was elected 
mayor last fall — and robbed of the 
place by such bare-faced stealing as 
would make a highwayman blush for 
his timidity. There was a time, how- 
ever, when public indignation had 
reached a pitch that only a little en- 
couragement would have produced 
such a psychological state of the public 
mind that Hearst would have been 
seated: the thieves would not have 
dared to brazen it out longer. 

But at this moment Mr. Hearst, 
through his newspapers, began coun- 
seling moderation — and the wave sub- 
sided. It was a manly and consistent 
thing to counsel good order, patience 
and exact obedience to law — but it 
lost him his seat. He preferred to 
depend upon statute law and legisla- 
tors rather than to take advantage 
of that "higher law" which in certain 
political crises is just as potent and 
has as good sanctions as that "higher 
law" which obtains in the matri- 
monial field. 

In an orderly manner he sought 
redress in the courts. He was denied 
this and told that the legislature alone 
could help him. He went to the legis- 
lature as directed; the assembly did 
make an effort — or the pretense of one — 
to give him an opportunity to ascertain 
the truth, for it passed a recount bill, but 
the Senate, that bulwark of venality, 
killed it. The excuse was that Mr. 
Hearst had recourse to quo warranto. 

But quo warranto may be invoked 
only by the attorney-general, or with 
his consent! And the attorney-gen- 
eral, unlike Don Juan's inamorata, 
meant it when he said, "I'll ne'er 
consent." 



The mayoralty campaign was con- 
ducted under the name "Municipal 
Ownership League," which had been 
organized under the direction of Mr. 
Hearst and his assistants. Imme- 
diately after election it was deemed 
wise to extend this league over the 



entire state, and the name was changed 
to the "Independence League," thus 
giving it a broader field of activity. 
The work of organizing local branches 
of the league has gone forward steadily 
ever since — and the magnificent state 
convention, just closed, is the first 
inkling the general public has had 
of how thoroughly the work has been 
done. 

It was such a convention as no New 
Yorker has ever before seen in his home 
state. I have seen similar ones in Ne- 
braska and Kansas in the palmy days of 
the People's Party. In fact, the 1,611 
delegates at Carnegie Hall showed the 
same spirit of independence and deter- 
mination that used to characterize 
old-time Populist conventions. "Re- 
minds me of our Nebraska Populist 
conventions," said I to a Tompkins 
County delegate, whose guest I was. 

"Why, they are Populists," he said; 
" I used to be a Populist myself." 

However, very few of the 1,611 
would be willing to admit as much. 
Very many good, radical reformers 
in New York think the Western Popu- 
lists had horns — whiskers at any rate — 
and that they believed in repudiation, 
anarchy, and a number of other dis- 
reputable things. It's too late trying 
to undeceive them now — and it doesn't 
matter much anyway. The Independ- 
ence League is not Populist, Demo- 
cratic or Republican. "I have said," 
remarked Mr. Hearst in his speech of 
acceptance, "that my program is not 
Socialism, or radicalism, or extreme 
of any kind. It is simply American- 
ism." 

That states the case in a nutshell. 
And the league does well to start off 
wholly untrammeled by old party, or 
old third party, traditions. It is a 
new party, born of the people. 

Out in Nebraska, in the days when 
we had a "three-ringed circus" — a 
Democratic, a Silver Republican and 
a Populist state convention all going 
(in separate halls) in the same city at 
the same time, it was usual to meet at 
2 p.m. and have the temporary organ- 
ization effected and preliminary com- 
mittees appointed before "supper." 



THE INDEPENDENCE LEAGUE 



497 



Then an adjournment until 8 p.m. 
When again in session it meant all 
night — and sometimes until noon the 
next day before the adjournment sine 
die. 

But here in New York more leisure 
is accorded the delegates and more 
time to the committees. Two night 
sessions of the convention proper, pre- 
ceded by a long night session of the 
State Central Committee were required 
to complete the work. 

The Democratic convention is set 
to meet at Buffalo, September 25. 
During the past three or four weeks 
some twenty counties out of twenty - 
five met in convention and selected 
Hearst delegations to Buffalo. Of 
course, it was a foregone conclusion 
who would be the nominee of the 
Independence League. And, as 
fusion is in the air all over the East, 
it was but natural that Mr. Hearst's 
supporters in the Democratic Party 
should seek an alliance with the 
League. But knowing that a Demo- 
cratic (or any other) convention dis- 
likes to have its ticket named (openly, 
at least) in advance of convention, 
Norman E. Mack, Democratic National 
Committeeman; William J. Conners, 
and other "up-state" Democrats, 
attempted to have the League postpone 
making nominations until after the 
Buffalo convention. They, together 
with numerous delegates, county 
chairmen and state committeemen, 
prepared a memorial asking such post- 
ponement and placed it in the hands 
of the League State Committee. 

Here is where the leaguers reminded 
me of the Populists. Everywhere 
went up the cry, "We want a straight 
ticket." No dickering with either of 
the old parties would be tolerated for a 
minute. 

It is probable Mr. Hearst's 
political managers rather wanted a 
Democratic indorsement for the 
League ticket. It would be quite 
natural if they did — for the League has 
no official place on the ballot as yet, 
and its ticket must go on by petition. 
Besides, if Mr. Hearst could carry the 
Buffalo convention, it would mean that 

October, 1906 — 3 



he had cleaned out the Democratic 
ring. 

But there was no mistaking the 
temper of that convention. Any ap- 
pearance of a fusion deal was resented. 
Even those who were mildly in favor 
of an honorable co-operation with the 
Democrats, provided the machine 
was smashed, were obliged to keep 
quiet, so vehement was the demand 
for a straight ticket and no dickering. 

I was forcibly reminded of the Popu- 
list National Convention in Sioux Falls, 
1900, when, against the better judg- 
ment of Senator Allen and others, we 
nominated Charles A. Towne for Vice- 
President and tried (and failed) to 
cram him down the Democratic throat 
later at Kansas City. We wanted 
fusion — but took an undiplomatic 
course to get it. 

The League Committee was in ses- 
sion until after 2 a.m. on that memo- 
rial, and finally referred it to the con- 
vention. And the convention, through 
its' resolutions committee, replied as 
follows : 

To Messrs. Norman E. Mack, William J. 
Conners and the delegates, County Chair- 
men and State Committeemen signing the 
memorial addressed to the State Com- 
mittee of the Independence League. 
Gentlemen — The Independence League, 
in convention assembled, thanks you for the 
interest you have manifested, as indicated 
by your memorial, which was received and 
carefully considered by the State Com- 
mittee and by it referred to this convention. 
The convention deems it inadvisable to 
postpone the important business for which 
it has assembled. 

We heartily sympathize with the honest 
efforts of the Democratic rank and file to 
secure control of their convention in the 
interests of good government. 

We fear that they may be unable to 
overthrow the bosses entrenched in an es- 
tablished machine and fortified by the 
power of corrupt corporations. 

But if the Democratic masses should be 
successful in this commendable endeavor, 
we should be glad to make common cause 
with them, and if they should not be suc- 
cessful we extend our hand in friendship 
to them, and invite their support at the 
polls of our independent ticket. 

An afternoon and a night session 
were held Tuesday, August 11. At 
the former, Willard A. Glen, of Syra- 



498 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



cuse, was made temporary chairman, 
and William A. De Ford, of New York, 
temporary secretary. Chairman Glen's 
address was filled with keen thrusts 
at the bosses, and was heartily ap- 
plauded. I quote: 

The corporations now deal with the 
lawmakers through the bosses, for the 
political boss is a ventriloquist speaking 
through the wooden men who represent 
him in the legislature. 

* * * * * 

Belmont sits in the executive committee 
of the Democratic Party. He speaks in the 
State organization through a respectable 
figurehead named Parker; and in the City 
of New York through a figurehead who 
lacks respectability named McClellan. 

After appointment of the usual 
committees, a recess was taken till 
8 p.m. 

At the evening session Judge Sam- 
uel Seabury was introduced as per- 
manent chairman. His speech was a 
plain statement of the situation, in- 
terrupted by the most remarkable 
demonstration I have ever seen. The 
judge knows how to render a just 
decision; he is honest as the day; he 
knows the facts; he is courageous; 
but 'he has never learned those little 
tricks of oratory which result in a well- 
rounded period, followed by applause. 
He tried to utter a sentence with the 
name of "William Randolph Hearst" 
about its middle. How he intended 
to finish will probably never be known, 
for a whole half-hour elapsed before 
he could say anything that could be 
heard twenty feet away. 

At the name of Hearst the entire 
audience arose en masse, and such 
yelling, hand-clapping, horn-tooting, 
stamping, hat-waving I have never 
before witnessed. It was the real 
thing, too. I've been in a Hearst 
meeting 01 two where the applause 
seemed too stereotyped — noisy enough, 
but not hearty enough. It was differ- 
ent this time and as easily detected as 
the difference between a genuine and a 
forced laugh. 

Stranger still, Mr. Hearst wasn't 
there at all! His name, not too 
cleverly spoken by Judge Seabury, 



had done the trick. It was an ovation 
full of significance, so full, in fact, 
that hostile New York papers were 
obliged to comment upon it. 

The reports of committees took up 
the remainder of the evening. The 
platform adopted demands a revision 
of the election laws; a cleaning out of 
the insurance and banking depart- 
ments; reorganization of the Railroad 
Commission ; searching investigation 
of every department, including the 
governor's office; the destruction of 
the Milk Trust ; a system of good roads ; 
pensions for teachers, and the "three- 
platoon" system for New York police- 
men. While strictly a state platform, 
some of the declarations are applicable 
to other states. I quote: 

The fundamental idea of the Independenc; 
League is independence ; independence of 
boss rule, independence of corporation con- 
trol and independence of any party subject 
to boss rule and corporation control. 

A man who is not independent in life, in 
thought and at the polls is not an American 
citizen of the type hoped for by the founders 
of this country. 

Without a free vote and an honest count 
there can be no liberty, no reform of abuses, 
no progress toward the supremacy of public 
over special interests. 

***** 

Hand in hand with this reform should go a 
measure stripping the attorney-general of 
discretionary power in quo warranto pro- 
ceedings to test the title to an office in dis- 
pute, and measures facilitating independent 
nominations, providing for the selection by 
popular vote of candidates for the United 
States Senate, an effective corrupt practices 
act and provision for direct nominations. 

***** 

We advocate legislation that will increase 
both the civil and criminal responsibility of 
directors of banks, trust companies, building 
and loan associations and public service cor- 
porations, not only for malfeasance in office, 

but for neglect in office. 

***** 

The Independence League believes in the 
public ownership of public utilities that are 
natural monopolies. It stands neither for 
private confiscation of public property nor 
public confiscation of private property. It 
believes in upholding and enforcing every 
property right. Holding that no person or 
corporation is privileged to confiscate what 
rightfully belongs to another, it stands for 
irreconcilable hostility to appropriation by 
corporations of franchise values created by 
the community and belonging to the 
community. 



THE INDEPENDENCE LEAGUE 



499 



The first essentials for public ownership 
are honesty in office and independence in 
voting. The application of the principle of 
public ownership thus becomes a matter for 
each community to settle for itself. Respect 
for local rights and home rule should author- 
ize the enactment of a statute empowering all 
cities to acquire and operate public neces- 
sities, such as gas and electric lighting 
plants, transportation lines and telephones, 
the same as waterworks, whenever such 
cities by a majority vote favor such a course. 

We pledge our efforts to bring about equi- 
table freight rates, to destroy rebates and dis- 
crimination and to enact and enforce a maxi- 
mum passenger rate of two cents a mile, 
applicable to every railroad in the state. 

* * * * * 

The Wednesday evening session did 
little but play from 8 o'clock until 
10.40. "Demonstrations" were the 
order of business, interrupted occa- 
sionally by a word or two of the report 
of a committee or a sentence from one 
of the speakers. A committee of 150 
had been empowered to investigate the 
qualifications of candidates and to re- 
port a "slate." Clarence J. Shearn, 
chairman of the committee, read its 
report. The ticket is printed at the 
head of this report; but as actually 
read it was about as follows: 

"For governor,- William Randolph 
Hearst." 

(And hell broke loose for noon, for 
about fifteen minutes.) 

"For lieutenant-governor, Lewis 
Stuyvesant Chanler, of Dutchess. " 

("Ki-yi! Whoop-la! They're off 
again! " for, say, five minutes.) 

" For secretary of state, John Sibley 
Whalen, of Monroe. " 

(Three minutes more of wild 
enthusiasm.) 

And so it went until Honest John 
Ford, for attorney -general, was 



reached last. The ovation given him 

was second only to that accorded 

Hearst. 

***** 

Of course, Mr. Shearn very properly 
moved that the report be adopted. 
Then Henry A. Powell got recognition 
of the chair and in a clever speech 
seconded the motion, which carried 
amid more noise. Mr. Powell then 
moved the appointment of a committee 
of three to invite Mr. Hearst to address 
the convention. It was appointed and 
Mr. Hearst came. 

The cheering lasted thirty-five min- 
utes, outdoing the previous evening 
two or three minutes. This time there 
was a flag for every person — so that 
flag-waving added to my former de- 
scription will suffice for here. Mr. 
Hearst appeared a bit ill at ease at first, 
but this wore off shortly and he stood 
bowing and smiling while the conven- 
tion went wild. I wondered if he 
thought about the New York Sun's 
late prophecy that the next Governor 
of New York will be a Democrat, and 
the next Governor of New York will be 
the candidate for President in 1908. 

***** 

I can't help thinking Mr. Hearst will 
be elected, whether he has the Demo- 
cratic indorsement or not. And to be 
Governor of New York is a powerful 
lever for securing a Presidential nomi- 
nation. Will it be Hearst or Bryan, 
Hearst and Bryan. Bryan and Hearst — 
or neither in 1908? A very pretty con- 
test is developing between the two — 
whether they wish it or not; for each 
has his stanch friends who will work 
night and day. A deadlock and a 
" dark horse " are quite possible. 



Something in a Name 

jV/TRS. BENHAM — Our boy is very restless and uneasy; I can't keep him in 
iV1 one place any length of time. 

Benham — That's what we get for naming him after the Methodist minister. 




THE LIPE £Hb TIOES OF 
flu DREW J/1CKSOH 

bv THOO/1S E.OvlATSOil . 




(Copyright igoo by Thomas E. Watson) 



IV 



IN the biography of Jackson recently 
published by Col. A. S. Col- 
yar there appears a letter, 
written by Judge John McNairy, in 
which this statement is made: ''We 
(Andrew Jackson and McNairy him- 
self) moved together from North 
Carolina to this state (Tennessee) and 
arrived at Nashville in October, 1788." 

Colonel Colyar regards this letter as 
sufficiently convincing to overthrow 
all the evidence which supports the 
conclusion that Andrew Jackson lived 
for a year or more at Jonesboro before 
going to Nashville. 

In Parton's voluminous " Life of 
Jackson," a book which Colonel Colyar 
says " ought not to have been written," 
the industrious author produces what 
purports to be a copy of an original 
advertisement in the State Gazette, of 
North Carolina, of November 28, 1788, 
and which reads as follows: 

"Notice ic hereby given that the 
new road from Campbell's Station to 
Nashville was opened on the 25th of 
September, and the guard attended at 
that time to escort such persons as 
were ready to proceed to Nashville; 
that about sixty families went on, 
amongst whom were the widow and 
family of the late General Davidson 
and John McNairy, judge of the 
Superior Court ; and that on the 1st day 
of October next the guard will attend 
at the same place for the same 
purpose." 

This advertisement convinced Par- 
ton that Andrew Jackson stopped no 
longer than "several weeks" in Jones- 
boro, "waiting for the assembling 
500 



of a sufficient number of emigrants, 
and for the arrival of a guard from 
Nashville to escort them." The evi- 
dence at least corroborates Judge 
McNairy 's statement as to the date 
of his arrival in Nashville. It by 
no means excludes the possibility that 
Jackson himself lived in Jonesboro 
a vear or more previous to October, 
1788. 

So many of the episodes in the long 
career of Andrew Jackson depend 
upon mere hearsay, the recollections 
of old people, neighborhood traditions 
and other testimony of that most 
untrustworthy character, that we find 
ourselves groping amid uncertainties 
at every turn. 

Assured of the fact that Jackson 
moved from Morganton directly to 
Nashville, Mr. Parton, a painstaking 
biographer, did not visit East Tennes- 
see while making the local researches 
upon which he based his elaborate 
work. 

If, as Mr. Parton states, Andrew 
Jackson and John McNairy stopped 
in Jonesboro for no other purpose 
than to await the assembling of emi- 
grants and the coming of the guard 
from Nashville, why did they go into 
court at Jonesboro during the May 
term, 1788, produce their licenses, 
and take the oaths necessary to quality 
them to practice law in that court? 

The technical name of the tribunal 
referred to was the "Court of Pleas 
and Quarter Sessions." 

Furthermore, the minutes of the 
"Superior Court of Law and Equity," 
kept at Jonesboro, disclose the fact 
that at the August term, 1788, John 
McNairy produced his license and took 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON 



501 



the necessary oath to qualify him to 
practice "in the several courts of this 
state." 

These old court-house records, 
copied into Judge Allison's "Dropped 
Stitches in Tennessee History," upset 
Parton's assertion that Jackson and 
McNairy "rendezvoused at Morganton 
m the spring or summer of 1788," and 
then went on to Nashville, after a halt 
of but a few weeks at Jonesboro. 

In the little log cabin, twenty-four 
feet square, which served as a court- 
house at Jonesboro, Andrew Jackson 
presented his license and was duly 
enrolled upon the minutes as an attor- 
ney entitled to practice "in this 
County Court," on the 12th day of 
May, 1788. 

It was at the November term, 1788, 
of "this County Court," at Jonesboro, 
that Jackson produced a " Bill of Sale 
from Micajah Crews to Andrew Jack- 
son, Esquire, for a negro woman 
named Nancy, about eighteen or 
twenty years of age," and proved the 
same by the oath of David Allison, a 
subscribing witness — whereupon the 
paper was "ordered to be recorded." 

"Ordered to be Recorded" was 
indicated upon legal documents in 
those days by the clerk's memoran- 
dum "O. R."; and with that proneness 
to error which is one of the most 
interesting and attractive features in 
human nature, the letters of the clerk's 
memorandum were taken to be 
"O. K.," and the stubborn pertinacity 
and success with which the senseless 
"O. K." has held its ground against 
the lucid and righteous "O. R." 
demonstrates how ridiculous a figure 
the truth can sometimes cut in contest 
with a falsehood which got the running 
start. 

What use Andrew Jackson had for 
the young negro woman, named Nancy, 
is not apparent. Being a boarder at 
the house of Christopher Taylor, he 
did not need her as a house-servant; 
he was not running a farm anywhere, 
and, consequently, he did not need 
her as a field-hand. Reasoning by 
the process of exclusion, we land 
firmly upon the conviction that Nancy 



was bought on speculation. In polit- 
ical campaigns it was natural that, 
in the North, the partisans of Old 
Hickory should vehemently deny that 
he had ever been a negro trader; but 
in the days of Andrew Jackson the 
business men of the South thought 
no more of buying and selling negroes 
than they did of buying and selling 
any other merchantable commodity. 
The business instinct was strong in 
Andrew Jackson, as it was in George 
Washington, and Nancy was the first 
of the many negroes that he bought 
to re-sell at a profit. 

In that interesting little volume, 
"Dropped Stitches in Tennessee His- 
tory," the author, Judge John Allison, 
presents a picture of the house in which 
Jackson boarded while he lived at 
Jonesboro. The photograph from 
which the illustration was made was 
taken in 1897, an d the house, which 
was built of hewn logs, presents the 
sturdy appearance of a building which 
might survive many other years. 
There are portholes at convenient 
distances for the riflemen who might 
be compelled to defend the home from 
Indian attack, and these portholes 
grimly remind one of the stern, bloody 
days in which the encroaching settler 
made his clearing and built his house. 
When Andrew Jackson came to 
Jonesboro (then spelt Jonesborough) 
to live it was a thriving town, equal, at 
least, to Nashville. It was surrounded 
and supported by one of the finest 
farming sections of the South. Public 
officials, merchants and others, travel- 
ing from the lower Southern States to 
Washington and points farther east 
made Jonesboro a stopping-place on 
the route. Droves of horses, mules and 
cattle from the regions round about 
were collected at Jonesboro, and from 
there driven to Georgia and the Caro- 
linas for sale. From Baltimore and 
Philadelphia came all sorts of mer- 
chandise by wagon, and these goods 
were distributed by the merchants of 
Jonesboro to the smaller dealers in ' 
Tennessee and Western North Carolina. 
Yes, indeed, Jonesboro was quite 
a large and flourishing town in those 



502 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



days, but it is one of those which has 
had to witness the growth of younger, 
stronger rivals as the invincible rail- 
road came along and gave its advan- 
tages to Johnson City and Bristol. 
The population of Jonesboro is not 
greater now than it was in the days of 
Andrew Jackson. 

"In going from Jonesboro to the 
courts in Greene, Hawkins and Sullivan 
counties, Jackson always took with 
him his shotgun, holsters and saddle- 
bags, and very often his hounds, so 
that he was always ready to join in a 
deer-chase or a fox-hunt. He was an 
unerring marksman, and was always 
the centre of attraction at the shooting 
matches at which the prizes were 
quarters of beef, turkeys and deer." 
So says Judge Allison in "Dropped 
Stitches." 

We can well believe it. Jackson 
loved life, action, contact and contest 
with his fellow-man. Neither at that 
time, nor at any other time, did he 
have any fondness for books. While at 
Jonesboro he burned no midnight oil 
poring over Coke or Blackstone or 
Chitty — nor did he do so anywhere 
else. Just enough law to get his case 
to the jury was about as much as he 
ever knew; and he relied upon his 
energy in hunting up evidence and his 
strong common sense in talking to the 
jury to carry him through. 

To speak of Andrew Jackson as hav- 
ing lived a year or more at Jonesboro 
without having had a fight with some- 
body would bring the story under 
suspicion ; therefore we must chronicle 
the fact that he did have "a personal 
difficulty" while at Jonesboro. 

One of the residents of Jonesboro 
was Samuel Jackson, a Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterian, who had come from 
Philadelphia and established himself 
in a successful business. A most 
worthy gentleman he was, by all ac- 
counts; and his descendants, to this 
day, are worthy people in East Ten- 
nessee. 

It seems that Andrew Jackson, be- 
ing a fighting man, carried a sword- 
cane — a habit common to the fighting 
men of that period. When the writer 



of this sketch was a small boy he 
remembers having seen one of these 
formidable weapons. To outward 
appearance the sword-cane differed 
from no other "walking stick." It 
looked as innocent as the handle of 
a wagon whip. But the cane was, in 
reality, a concealed weapon, for it was 
nothing more than the wooden scab- 
bard of a long, keen blade of steel 
which was ready to flash into the light 
and drink blood the moment the handle 
of the cane was pulled. In other words , 
the sword-cane was made upon the 
principle of the sword, with the differ- 
ence that all men knew a sword to be 
a sword, while no one could tell a 
sword-cane from any other kind of 
"walking-stick." 

Andrew Jackson had a quarrel with 
Samuel Jackson, and before the matter 
ended Andrew had pierced the thigh 
of Samuel with the spear of his sword- 
cane. It does not appear that Samuel 
Jackson was armed, or that Andrew 
Jackson was justifiable in the use of the 
weapon. A daughter of Samuel Jack- 
son, relating the circumstances to John 
Brownlow, some forty years ago, spoke 
with deep feeling of the matter, de- 
nouncing the conduct of Andrew Jack- 
son. Making allowances for the natural 
bias of a daughter, the impression 
remains that the assault was due to 
the violent temper of Andrew rather 
than to any adequate provocation. 

The famous Parson Brownlow lives 
in Southern history as one of its most 
striking figures. From his son, John 
B. Brownlow, I have received many 
valuable suggestions in the studies for 
this sketch of Andrew Jackson; and 
the following letter from him is in- 
serted here because of its bearing upon 
this part of Jackson's career. 



Knoxville, Tenn., August 16, 1906. 

"There is no doubt whatever that 
Jackson resided at Jonesboro at least 
one year, and probably longer. While 
writing his book, Parton spent several 
weeks at Nashville, but he never came 
to East Tennessee, and never com- 
municated by letter or otherwise with 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON 



503 



any citizen of this section of the state 
about Jonesboro, so far as I have ever 
heard. 

"Immediately after receiving your 
letter this morning I called to see 
Judge O. P. Temple, who had been a 
citizen of Knoxville since 1848. He 
was born in Greene County, the county 
adjoining Washington, of which Jones- 
boro is the capital town. Before re- 
moving here in 1848 he practiced law 
at Jonesboro, residing at Greenville, 
twenty-five miles distant. In 1847 
Judge Temple was the Whig candidate 
for Congress against Andrew Johnson, 
Johnson defeating him by three hun- 
dred votes. In 1849 ne held a diplo- 
matic position under President Tay- 
lor's administration. For sixteen years 
he was Judge of the Court here. His 
memory and mental faculties seem 
unimpaired, and until he retired from 
the bar, he was one of the most suc- 
cessful lawyers we have had in East 
Tennessee. He is now eighty-seven. 
I asked him bluntly : ' Did Andrew 
Jackson ever make Jonesboro his 
home?' He replied: 'Certainly; he 
opened a law office there and lived 
there for at least a year, and I think 
two years; and when I was a young 
man visiting Jonesboro I heard the 
name of the widow with whom he 
boarded while there, but I have for- 
gotten it. I also remember to have 
heard of his horse-racing there.' 

"From Judge Temple's home I 
called at my mother's. I asked her 
the very same question. She replied : 
'Didn't you know that General Jackson 
lived at Jonesboro before going to 
Nashville?' I told her that had al- 
ways been my understanding, but I 
wanted her recollection on the subject. 
She added that when a young woman 
she was in Jonesboro and that the house 
he, Jackson, lived in, where he boarded, 
was pointed out to her. From 1839 
to 1849 my father resided in Jonesboro, 
editing a Whig newspaper. During 
this period my mother heard several 
of the old people of the town speak of 
Jackson, who knew him personally 
while he practiced law there. My 
mother is eighty-seven. 



"In the 'History of the Bench and 
Bar of Tennessee' it is stated that 
Jackson never wrote an opinion as 
Judge. The author of that work, 
Hon. Joshua W. Caldwell, resided in 
this city. He recently told me that 
since his book was published he had 
heard that in the court-house at 
Elizabeth, Carter County, East Ten- 
nessee, there was among the records 
a Judicial opinion of Jackson's, in his 
own writing. It is worth investigating 
this matter, as, if true, it is new matter 
in that no Judicial opinion of Andrew 
Jackson has ever been published in 
book or newspaper. Carter is a moun- 
tain county, bordering on Washington. 
I may go there before the November 
election, and if so I will investigate. 

"The county (Washington) it is in 
is the first county in the United States, 
not excepting Washington County, 
Va., which was named in honor of the 
immortal George. It was named for 
him while he was a Colonel of Virginia 
militia wearing the British colors, and 
while Tennessee was a part of North 
Carolina. Until within recent years 
Jonesboro was spelled Jonesborough. 

" That not one of the numerous biog- 
raphers of Jackson has ever visited 
East Tennessee is one reason why you 
should do so. There are many spots 
of interest here in connection with his 
career which would interest you. On 
the street where I am writing this 
letter Jackson, while a Judge of our 
highest court, made a personal assault 
on John Sevier, the Governor, because 
of slighting remarks the latter was 
alleged to have made, that he, Jackson, 
'had stolen another man's wife.'" 

When we bear in mind that Andrew 
Jackson was admitted to practice law 
in the "County Court" at Jonesboro 
in May, 1788, was still there in August, 
1788, and was putting upon the records 
of that court his Bill of Sale to Nancy 
in November of the same year, it will be 
difficult to escape the conviction that 
the young lawyer was living there. 

Nashville was one hundred and 
eighty-three miles farther on in the 
wilderness, and no one could travel the 



504 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



road from the one place to the other 
without a guard to protect him from 
the Indians; consequently we cannot 
explain away the facts by supposing 
that Jackson was living in Nashville 
and attending to law business in 
Jonesboro. The nature of the country, 
the distance between the two places, 
and the perilous condition of the roads, 
made this a physical impossibility in 
the year 1788. 

Later, conditions changed for the 
better, but in 1788, when emigrants 
to the number of "sixty families" 
dared not move from Jonesboro to 
Nashville without military escort, no 
lawyer could have lived in the one 
town and practiced in the other. 

To be convinced that Andrew Jack- 
son could not have lived in Nashville 
in 1788, while practicing law in Jones- 
boro, we have only to study the narra- 
tive of Parton himself. We learn 
from him, and from others, that the 
road was not to be traveled without 
military escort. We learn that, even 
in the year 1789, Judge John McNairy 
and his party were attacked by Indians 
while the Judge was on his way to hold 
the Superior Court at Jonesboro. 
Three men of McNairy 's party were 
killed, and the rest dispersed. Their 
horses, camp equipage and clothing 
were left behind, while they saved 
their lives by swimming to the other 
side of the river upon which they had 
been encamped. 

Mr. James Parton was a most indus- 
trious biographer, a most entertaining 
writer, and a most amusingly credu- 
lous man. If a story about one of 
his heroes tickled his fancy, he couldn't 
help believing it to save his life. There- 
fore he straightway put it into his 
book. 

That Andrew Jackson could travel 
one hundred and eighty-three miles 
in the wilderness without having 
"adventures" appeared unnatural to 
biographical and historical writers of 
the Peter Parley school, and therefore 
we learn from Parton 's " Life of Andrew 
Jackson" that the guard which had 
been sent from Nashville to watch 



over the lives of the emigrants was 
totally unfit for the business, and that 
had not Andrew Jackson and his cob 
pipe been along, the Indians would 
have surprised and butchered the 
whites. 

Remember that we have been told by 
Parton that Jackson and McNairy 
waited several weeks at Jonesboro for 
the assembling emigrants and for the 
guard from Nashville. Remember 
that the emigrants did assemble in due 
course and that the guard from Nash- 
ville did arrive. Remember that the 
party numbered about one hundred, 
and that the military escort must have 
consisted of backwoodsmen familiar 
with Indian ways, Indian fighting and 
all necessary woodcraft. Remember 
that this guard from Nashville came 
from the dark and bloody ground of 
constant and deadly antagonism be- 
tween the white intruders and the 
Red Men who believed that the Great 
Spirit had given them the land. Re- 
member that it was the special duty of 
this Indian-fighting escort to protect 
the men, women and children of the 
emigrant train from surprise, ambus- 
cade and attack. Remember that at 
night, in the midst of the unbroken 
forest, the danger would be greatest 
and the guard most vigilant. Remem- 
ber all these things and then smile as 
you read the story, which Parton re- 
peats, of the childlike manner in which 
the trained and trusted backwoods- 
men from Nashville had all become 
negligent, and how the young lawyer, 
Andrew Jackson, who happened to be 
"sitting with his back against a tree 
smoking a corncob pipe, an hour after 
his companions had gone to sleep," 
called the attention of the young 
clerk of the court, Thomas Searcy, to 
the suspicious hoots of the owls — which 
hoots the young lawyer from old North 
Carolina knew must be made by 
Indians and not by owls! The trained 
and trusted backwoods Indian fighters 
had not suspected that these owls were 
other than owls! How mean and 
cheap those trained and trusted Indian 
fighters from Nashville must have felt 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANDREW JACKSON 



505 



as the young lawyer from old North 
Carolina roused them to a sense of the 
perils by which they were encom- 
passed! According to this marvelous 
yarn, which Parton swallows without 
a wink of the eye, the Andrew Jackson 
band rose up and marched away from 
there, unmolested, whereas a party of 
hunters who came up to the same 
camp, during the same night, and laid 
them down to sleep in the same place, 
were remorselessly butchered by the 
same Indians who had been hooting 
those owl-hoots at the Jackson band! 
What an extensively credulous Par- 
ton! In such haste was he to make a 
wonderful figure out of the raw young 
lawyer from Salisbury, N. C, that 
the best borderers whom Tennes- 
see could select were made to neglect 
the simplest duties, and get caught 
napping in the stupidest fashion, at the 
very time when such a thing was the least 
likely to have happened. 

That there may have been a narrow 
escape for the emigrants from some 
night-attack of Indians is probable 
enough; but it is simply incredible 
that a guard, picked by pioneers of the 
times of Robertson and Donelson and 
Sevier, for the very purpose of watch- 
ing over the safety of the inexperienced 
and helpless emigrants, should have 
gone to sleep in the depths of the 
wilderness with Red Men all about 
them, or should have been so unskilled 
as not to detect so common an Indian 



signal as the imitation of the owl-hoot. 
The unsuspicious, indiscriminate and 
comprehensively credulous Parton is 
so sure of his ground that he actually 
gives his readers the exact time which 
elapsed between the flight of the Jack- 
son band and the coming of the hunt- 
ers who were butchered. 

It was one hour. 

Thus we have one band of white 
borderers who wait to be led out of the 
Indian ambuscade by a young attor- 
ney, and a second band of white bor- 
derers who come upon the deserted 
camp-fires, one hour later, and who 
see no "signs" which are sufficient to 
arouse suspicion and excite watchful- 
ness. The second band of white bor- 
derers — -men who live amid continual 
dangers, who carry their lives in their 
hands, and to whom the reading of the 
"signs" in the woods is the necessary 
condition of life in the savage wilds — 
lie down around the abandoned camp- 
fires of Jackson's band, and without so 
much as posting a picket fall into the 
arms of sleep and of death. 

The credulous Parton! Of all things 
which would have put the second band 
of white borderers upon instant notice 
that danger lurked on the trail, it was 
the abandoned camp which must have 
shown, even to the untrained eye of an 
emigrant, that it had been suddenly 
and recently deserted by those who had 
intended to remain there for the 
night ! 



To be Continued. 




The Barons Intended 

BY E. V. LOCKROY 



HARVEY SEARS had made up 
his mind that she was not to 
be won away from him. She 
was the one girl, and, looking at his 
own merits in the coldest impersonal 
light, he was confident that her life's 
happiness was bound with his destiny. 
She had never admitted so much in 
words, but she had let him go all the 
way out to Pinewood two evenings of 
each week during the past winter ; she 
had given him the preference of dances 
at every hop during the summer at the 
seashore, and on one secluded and 
ever-memorable occasion she had let 
him hold her hand while the hotel 
orchestra played "Dearie." At an- 
other time when he was stealthily pin- 
ning his class pin on her sleeve, she 
gave a little screech because he tried 
to fix the pin in her wrist, but she had 
deigned to affix the token herself and 
had kept it since. 

No woman would condemn a man to 
those journeys on the fickle trains that 
ran to quiet, aristocratic Pinewood 
to no purpose, unless hers was a cruel, 
wanton soul. Such a soul did not 
inhabit the fair person of Nathalie 
Gilbert. She was honest and good as 
she was tall and fair. Until he knew 
her, the law, his profession , had been a 
tyrant to whom he was in thrall. 
Now it was a symbol of the beautiful 
girl with whom he was in love. Every 
hour of struggle and striving with law 
meant a step nearer the goal of 
Nathalie. The world was recreated, 
he was born again and the breath of 
spring perfumed the air on the chilliest 
March nights, until the ambition of 
Nathalie's aspiring mama descended 
506 



like a blight with the advent of Baron 
von Hampferschlag. 

The baron was a guest of the Har- 
wells at Stonebridge, the first station 
beyond Pinewood. Mrs. Gilbert and 
Nathalie had met him two years before 
at Marienbad, when Nathalie was 
seventeen, which of course did not 
render her less captivating to the 
handsome, perhaps foppishly hand- 
some, nobleman. He looked thirty -five 
and was registered in the Almanack 
as forty. Mrs. Gilbert had searched 
the records. The baron had only some 
means, but brilliant and unimpeach- 
able lineage. Since the baron's ar- 
rival in America journals devoted to 
the social world had published various 
gossip about the visits he was making 
and the heiresses presumably fiancees 
apparent. 

In one of these statements, couched 
in veiled terms, Harvey Sears divined 
the peril of his future. He had been 
in the South for two or three weeks 
on an important railroad case. Going 
to his club late in the afternoon of his 
first day in town, he chanced upon the 
ominous paragraph. The painful mem- 
ory that Nathalie had answered 
none of the letters he wrote her while 
away afflicted him with new torture. 
This was Tuesday. It was on Tuesday 
that he usually went to Pinewood. 
He gave a hurried order for dinner and 
dressed meanwhile, managing, as much 
by luck as by striving, to catch the 
six-forty train. All during the jour- 
ney his teeth were shut hard and his 
lips compressed, giving hfs clean-cut, 
smooth face a tense, frowning ex- 
pression. His mind was turbulent 
with doubts, possibilities, plans. It 



THE BARON'S INTENDED 



507 



was a local train and at each of the 
innumerable stops his hopes burned 
lower, his determination became more 
grim. Clearly and more clearly he 
saw in the German baron the source 
of woe, and gradually the man he had 
never seen became his soul's enemy 
and hatred, while the click of the 
wheels on the track rang in his ears 
with : 

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la, 
Have nothing to do with the case, 

Dee-de dum, dee-de dum, dee-de dum, la-la, 
Dee-de dum, dee-de dum, dee-de dum. 

The words came back somewhere 
from long ago, at once irrelevant and 
silly, he thought. But their rhythm 
clung to him until he got off the train 
at Pinewood station. An unexpected, 
sharp April rain, blurring the sparse 
lights about the place, sent the few late 
passengers in a run to their traps. 
Harvey dashed to the first hack in the 
line of rickety livery vehicles, told the 
driver his destination and after several 
muscular slams succeeded in getting 
the door closed on himself. The 
Birches, Mrs. Gilbert's house, was far 
back on the top of the big hill that set 
the limits of the township. After two 
or three mad leaps that seemed rather 
to send them backward than forward, 
the nag began to mount the long 
ascent, meditative and slow. Harvey 
wished he might condemn the baron 
to ride for five years in such a cold, 
damp squeaky vehicle, behind so rare 
a specimen of equine degeneracy. 
Near the top of the hill, and within 
half a mile of the Birches, the road 
turned sharply to the left, crossing a 
trolley line. Chilled within and with- 
out, Harvey was sinking into despond, 
when he noticed with relief that they 
were making the sharp turn. ... A 
blaze of sudden light dazzled his eyes. 
Instinctively he burst the door of the 
hack open and jumped. Earth seemed 
to open with a grinding, cataclysmic 
roar and . 

Bad raw whisky was scalding his 
throat. Opening his eyes slowly, he 
saw the hackman kneeling above him 
with a flask in his hand. 



"Have some more, sir?" and the 
hackman poured it down. 

Harvey shut his teeth together and 
the poison flowed down his neck in a 
trickling deluge. 

" Good Lord, man, don't drown me," 
he gasped. "I can't drink any more. 
I'm all right, if you'll help me to my 
feet." 

The motorman and the conductor 
came forward. They both showed 
deep concern and made abject offers to 
do anything to oblige the gentleman. 
They took Harvey's card, who said he 
would not sue the company unless he 
fell ill as a result of the collision. 

"Come on, driver," said Harvey ex- 
citedly, "I'm in a hurry to get to the 
Birches." 

The hackman gave vent to a poig- 
nant cry, not quite a groan or sob, as he 
pointed to the shattered hack and the 
prostrate horse some yards away. 

"My whole fortune gone to smash, 
sir," he moaned, "and Firefly's fore- 
legs broken. He's got to be shot and 
he was a fine bit o' flesh in his day. 
He done a mile at the State Fair in eight- 
een hundred and — lemme see " 

"Never mind his record," Harvey 
interrupted, "here's my address. I'll 
see that you get damages. I've got to 
go now. I'll walk." 

The three men watched him as he 
started away somewhat unsteadily. 
Then the trolley employees took the 
hackman's name, helped him empty 
the flask and went back to the car, 
which in this remote section had no 
passengers and had suffered only a few 
scratches. 

When Harvey was assured that for 
all the aches and strains in regions of 
his anatomy of which he had never 
known he was able to plod on through 
the rain, he began to take observa- 
tions of his appearance: his clothes 
were torn in many places and his outer 
coat and trousers were daubed with 
mud that the constant rain kept in a 
moist plaster. He had forgotten his 
hat until he became aware of a surface 
gash over his eye, which he bound with 
his handkerchief. More than once he 
half resolved to turn and go back to the 



508 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



village. That would be a much longer 
walk, however, and he felt a queer 
dizziness every few minutes that made 
him doubt his strength. Also the 
baleful image of Baron von Hampfer- 
schlag floated across his bewildered 
brain. He had never met the baron, 
but he knew now that he would recog- 
nize him on sight. 

The Birches was a large, costly, not 
very handsome house, set in a grove of 
the trees from which it took name. As 
he passed through the iron gateway, 
Sport, Nathalie's bull terrier, ran 
suspiciously toward Harvey, who 
greeted him with a sad but friendly, 
"Hello, Sport!" The terrier, who 
ought to have known him, snarled 
most inhospitably and aimed a lunge at 
a choice shred of trousering flapping at 
Harvey's calf. In former days this 
was the leg that Harvey used for goal- 
kicks. The other one was reserved for 
punting. On the instant he rejoiced 
that Sport had made so appropriate a 
selection, and with a mental calculation 
that Sport could not anyway go much 
higher than the house, Harvey's leg 
shot out as if driven by an electric 
dynamo. The terrier sailed with a 
howl into the air and landed some- 
where. Harvey did not know just 
where because of the darkness and 
because Sport did not tell. 

It seemed almost five minutes after 
he had rung the bell for the first time 
that Harvey heard the slam of a door 
in the basement, the tramp of feet on 
the stairs and then the hurried tread 
of a servant in the hall. ^ Over the 
Birches hung a strangely quiet air. In 
dismay the thought came to him, what 
if no one were at home ? 

The door was drawn slowly inward 
before him. Mrs. Gilbert had evi- 
dently hired a new housemaid. He did 
not recognize this one, who stared at 
him a second and then tried to slam the 
door in his face. Harvey's foot, the 
punting foot, slid forward and caught 
the door as a chug. The maneuvre 
was painful, but effective to his 
purpose. 

" What do you mean? " he demanded 
sternly. 



For answer the maid shrieked with 
terror and fled wildly along the hall and 
down the stairs to her proper region. 

With grim satisfaction Harvey felt 
that the yell would at least serve 
as an indication that someone had 
called. He closed the hall door after 
him, laid off his dismembered raincoat 
and entered the long, dimly lighted 
parlor on his left. The shades were 
lowered, the curtains drawn. The air 
here was close and smelled, he thought, 
of furnace heat. In a moment it 
occurred to him that he had never in 
his life been in a room so overheated. 

"I'll sit down as long as I have to 
wait," he said to himself wearily. 

He moved toward a chair. The walls 
began to move, too. He stopped. 
They went round, whirring faster 
each time. They were whirling him 
round now in their crazy orbit. 
He reached and got a firm grip on 
the high gold curio cabinet that held 
Nathalie's collection of silver knick- 
knacks. What a relief it was to find 
it there, firm as granite in this whirl- 
wind of walls! He gripped it harder. 
The walls whirred more swiftly. They 
were only a blur to him now. The 
whole house was turning; even the 
cabinet began to sway — and toward 
him. He snatched his hand off, reeled 
and fell. The cabinet came down 
with a crash and clatter that sounded 
to him like faint echoi s from far away. 



They were giving him that scalding 
whisky again. "Tell you, driver," 
Harvey protested feebly, "I won't 
— another — drop. Throat not lined — 
asbestos." 

" This is mama's whisky," Nathalie 
insisted tearfully; "please take it." 

He raised his eyelids drowsily. "Is 
that surely you, Nathalie?" he asked. 
"I'm not dreaming?" 

She was kneeling beside him and had 
placed a divan pillow under his head. 

" You've been hurt, Harvey. You're 
better now, aren't you? " 

"I'll be all right, dear girl. Trolley 
hit us at the curve. Hack in tooth- 
picks." 



THE BARON'S INTENDED 



509 



She raised his head and urged him 
to drink what remained of the whisky. 

"I like mama's whisky," he said, 
sitting up with an effort. "Why, 
Nathalie, you're crying! " 

"I'm not really, but I have a dread- 
ful headache," she sobbed. "I was 
so frightened by the noise and to find 
you lying here. The maids all ran 
away screaming — and — and mama's 
dining at the Harwells'." 

"You poor girl! I'm sorry to have 
given you so much trouble and — great 
Caesar's ghost, did I smash that 
cabinet?" He pointed to the silver- 
sprinkled ruins. 

" It might have killed you," Nathalie 
said fearsomely. 

"Would you have — ?" he began; but 
was suddenly silent at the look of 
dread that came into her face. 

She whispered: "Don't you hear 
that shuffle of feet on the veranda? 
And I saw a lantern flash — look, there 
it is again! " 

She got up, quivering. Harvey 
scrambled to his feet and stared at the 
curtained windows. He heard the 
shuffling now and caught a glimpse of 
the lantern's flash. 

"Burglars!" Nathalie murmured 
hoarsely, seizing his hand and standing 
behind him. 

"Seems to be a lot of them," he re- 
joined, more to assure her than to 
state a theory. 

"You're not afraid, dear," he went 
on, patting her arm. "We'll put out 
that lamp. Come with me." 

"There's a bulb in it," she inter- 
posed, halting. "It's here." 

They both tiptoed to the wall. 
Nathalie stretched forth a quaking 
hand and laid her finger firmly against 
the button. The room was in total 
darkness. The feet on the veranda 
shuffled hastily. 

"Is there a pistol in the house?" 
Harvey asked in a whisper. 

"In mother's room," she replied, 
and he felt the delight of her lips near 
his cheek. "Let me lead. I know 
the way better." 

They went stealthily up the stairs. 
In the next hall a light was burning. 



Mrs. Gilbert's room opened on the 
landing at the rear of the house. 
Harvey passed before Nathalie, still 
clasping her hand. In a tight grip 
he turned the knob noiselessly and 
pushed the door open as they stole 
into the room. 

"Throw up your hands!" a voice 
roared in the darkness. 

With a little cry Nathalie fell in a 
swoon against Harvey, who wrapped 
his arm about her waist and stood 
protectively before her. 

A man with a railroad lantern in one 
hand and an aimed revolver in the 
other sprang from the top of a ladder 
through the raised window. 

"By gravy," the man ground the 
words between his teeth, "we've got 
him at last." He was pointing both 
lantern and revolver at Harvey. 
"Drop that lady! " 

"She might be hurt if I dropped 
her on the floor," retorted Harvey 
in a cool rage. " If you'll stop shaking 
that revolver and hold it so you can 
shoot straight, in case you have to, 
I'll place Miss Gilbert on the bed. She 
has fainted." 

As Harvey carried out this intention 
three more men climbed from the ladder 
through the window, each with a revol- 
ver of various periods and each carry- 
ing a lantern. Hearing a noise behind 
him, he turned his glance of a second 
toward the door and saw two men 
in the doorway. One had a club and 
the other a two-inch rope coiled about 
his arm. Harvey stepped back slowly 
into the one free corner of the room. 
Six pairs of eager, fearful eyes glared at 
him. 

" I'm glad you've brought your lamps, 
gentlemen," said Harvey, "because 
until Miss Gilbert recovers I can't turn 
on the light. I don't know where the 
switch is. But haven't you struck 
the wrong house for a lynching bee? 
There are no negroes here." 

"This ain't no lynchin' bee." The 
first man who had come into the room 
spoke out. "I'm the sheriff of this 
yere kaounty an' the help kem scared 
stiff daown to taown sayin' the wild 



510 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



man had bust in here and was killin' 
Miss Gilbert." 

"Do I look like him?" Harvey 
asked with a smile, and at the same 
moment bicame conscious of his tat- 
tered evening clothes and mud-tinted 
shirt-front. 

"Waal, if you don't mind, brother, 
you do look somethin' like you'd gone 
through a threshin' machine or fell 
from a air-ship," replied the spokes- 
man. "But you must excuse us; 
you see the hull neighborhood has been 
layin' fer this here wild man that lives 
in a cave in Fassett's Woods for the 
past month, an' from the story the 
help give I was sure as glue that we 
had him landed. I guess we got 
another guess comin'.'-' 

"I'm afraid the drinks are on you, 
sheriff," Harvey rejoined. "I must 
admit , though, that after being shot out 
of a Pinewood hack by a trolley car 
a man does look a bit unusual." 

Nathalie, who had been lying motion- 
less, raised her arm and pleaded faintly, 
"Harvey." 

"Gentlemen," said he, "I must ask 
you to go at once and quietly. Miss 
Gilbert might be seriously shocked at 
your warlike appearance. Will you 
leave a lamp here, please? " 

" You can have mine as a soovneer," 
the sheriff said, laying the nickel- 
framed lantern on Mrs. Gilbert's dress- 
ing-table, "an' I hope, sir, you won't 
hold it agin the kaounty that ye met 
all the damphools in it at one time." 

The men slunk away, some of them 
muttering shamefaced apologies as 
they went. They that had entered 
through the window used the same 
means for egress. As the others pad- 
ded heavily down the stairs, Harvey 
lifted Nathalie to her feet and aided 
her to a chair. 

They heard frantic steps coming up 
the stairs, now, and the next moment 
Mrs. Gilbert, active and prettily flushed 
as a girl, burst through the open door- 
way. 

One of the servants had telephoned 
to her at the Harwells' that the Pine- 
wood wild man had broken into the 
house and that Miss Nathalie had 



locked herself in a room on the top 
floor. The coachman and groom were 
at Stonebridge, of course. The gar- 
dener, the maid said, had gone to the 
village a little while before the wild 
man arrived. The last the maid had 
heard of him he was smashing the 
furniture and tearing down the pictures 
in the parlor. 

It was some time before Mrs. Gilbert 
felt assured that no serious harm had 
befallen either Harvey or her daugh- 
ter. 

''The only real damage you have 
suffered," said Harvey persuasively, 
"is in the mud the village rescuers have 
strewn through the house. Then the 
curio cabinet is smashed, but you would 
have to have a new one anyway to hold 
the sheriff's lamp. There isonemoresad 
record to be made of this night. Has 
anybody heard of or seen Sport? He 
snapped at me as I came in tonight 
and I lifted him with a goal-kick. 
Poor Sport! Little he dreams it was 
a friendly foot that kicked him." 

As they went down to ascertain 
whether the terrified servants had yet 
returned, Mrs. Gilbert insisted that 
Harvey remain at the Birches over- 
night and said further that he could 
telephone to New York for clothes 
after they had had some supper. 

"You see," she added, "I was called 
away just at the roast. George Har- 
well wanted to come with me, but I 
declared that it was hard enough for 
one lusty soul to lose a dinner and that 
my men would see nothing happened 
to me. I'll go and see what can be 
done in the way of supper." 

Harvey and Nathalie remained in 
the parlor to push the shattered cab- 
inet into a corner and to gather the 
silver. As they knelt, each on one 
knee, Harvey's hand chanced to come 
in contact with Nathalie's. They had 
reached simultaneously for a quaint 
Dutch pepperbox that was among her 
most treasured possessions. 

Holding her hand against the floor, 
with just a suggestion of pressure, 
Harvey asked: "Why didn't you an- 
swer my letters, Nathalie?" 

"I've been sick in bed with grippe. 



THE BARON'S INTENDED 



511 



Sunday was the first time I came 
down to dinner in two weeks." 

"Tm sorry; but I'm rather glad it 
wasn't because you had grown tired 
of me." 

"Why should I giow tired of you, 
Harvey?" 

Somehow their heads had come very 
close together, so that at the sound of 
steps in the hall they both stood up 
nervously, like children surprised in 
mischief. 

Nathalie's cheeks glowed. Harvey 
was uncomfortably conscious of the 
wreck of his attire . 

"Those scatterbrains, including 
Sport, are all back again," said Mrs. 
Gilbert, "and I've given the new maid 
notice. Supper will be ready very 
shortly. Of course you've told Harvey 
the news, daughter." 

Mrs. Gilbert's expression suddenly 



became as self-conscious as that of the 
two young people. 

"I haven't had a chance. Mother 
is going to be married, Harvey." 

"To Baron von Hampferschlag? " 
he asked excitedly. 

"How did you know? Nothing has 
been said except at Stonebridge." In 
rapid-fire one sentence after the other 
came from mother and daughter. 

"I didn't know," said Harvey, with 
a happy sigh. "That's why I came 
out tonight." He took Nathalie's 
hand awkwardly. "I say, Mrs. Gil- 
bert, won't you give the new maid 
another chance?" 

Mrs. Gilbert smiled broadly: "I 
will, if you children will promise to be 
patient and let seniors have a chance." 

"It's not so hard to wait when one 
has a little hope," Harvey replied, 
drawing Nathalie toward him. 




THE ROCKEFELLER THEORY 



Drawn by Gordon Nye. 



512 



THE S1DGER OF 
IDE "flCDE 




m JOhD 6. DEiraRdT 

(J, 




The Old Omaha Speaks 

NOW this is the story of one who 
walked not with his people, 
but with a dream 

To you I tell it, O White Brother, 
yet is it not for you, unless you also 
have followed the long trail of hunger 
and thirst — the trail that leads to no 
lodge upon the high places, or the low 
places, by flowing streams or where the 
sand wastes lie. 

It shall be as the talking of a strange 
tribe to you, unless you also have 
peered down the endless trail, with 
eyes that ached and dried up as dust, 
and felt your pony growing leaner and 
shadow- thin beneath you as you rode, 
until at last you sat upon a quiet heap 
of bones and peered and peered ahead. 

Moon-Walker was he called — -he who 
walked for the moon. But that was 
after he had called his pony in from 
the grazing places and mounted for the 
long ride. Yet was there a time when 
he ran about among the lodges, laugh- 
ing very merrily with many boys and 
girls, who played with hoop and spear, 
made little bloodless wars upon unseen 
peoples, and played, in little ways the 
big, sad games of men. And then he 
was called by many names, and all of 
the names, though different, meant 
that he was happy. 

But once his mother and his father 
saw how that a man began to look out 
of his eyes, began to hear a man talking 
In his throat; and so they said, "It is 
the time for him to dream." 

So they sent him at nightfall to the 
hill of dreams — as is the custom of our 
people. 

Wahoo! The bitter hill of dreams! 
Many have I seen go up there laughing, 
but always they came down with halt- 
ing feet and with sadness in their 

October. 1906 — 3 — 513 



faces. And among these many, lo! 
even I who speak — therefore should 
my words be heard. 

And he of the many names went up 
into the hill of dreams and dreamed. 
And in through the mists that strange 
winds blow over the hills of sleep burst 
a white light, as though the moon had 
grown so big that all the sky was filled 
from rim to rim, leaving no place for 
sun and stars. And upon the surface 
of the white light floated a face, an 
awful face — whiter than the light upon 
which it floated; and so beautiful to 
see that he of the many happy names 
ached through all his limbs, and cried 
out and woke. Then leaping to his 
feet, he gazed about, and all the stars 
had grown so small that he looked 
thrice and hard before he saw them, 
and the world was shrunken. 

And frightened at the strangeness 
of all things, he fled down the hillside 
into the village. His mother and frs 
father he wakened with bitter crying. 

"How came the dream?" they 
whispered; for upon the face of him 
who went up a boy they saw that 
which only many years should bring; 
and in his eyes there was a strange 
light. 

"A face! a face! " he whispered. " I 
saw the face of the Woman of the 
Moon! Whiter than snow, it was, 
and over it a pale flame went! Oh, 
never have I seen so fair a face ; and 
there was something hidden in it 
swift as lightning; something that 
would be thunder if it spoke ; and also 
there was something kind as rain 
that falls upon a place of aching heat. 
Into the north it looked, high up to 
where the lonesome star hangs patient. 

"And there was a dazzle of white 
breasts beneath, half hidden in a 
thin blanket of mist. And on her 



514 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



head, big drifts of yellow hair; not hang- 
ing loose as does your hair, O mother, 
but heaped like clouds that burn above 
the sunset. My breast aches for some- 
thing I cannot name. And now I 
think that I can never play again!" 

And there was a shaking of heads in 
that lodge, and a wondering, for this 
was not good. Not so had others, big 
in deeds, dreamed upon the hill in 
former times. Always there had been 
a coming of bird, or beast, or reptile, 
wrapped in the mystery of strange 
words; or there had been the cries of 
fighting men, riding upon a hissing of 
hot breaths; or there had been a 
stamping of ponies, or the thin, mad 
song of arrows. 

But here it was not so, and the 
mother said, "Many times the false 
dreams come at first, and then at last 
the true one comes. May it not be so 
with him?" 

And the father said, " It may be so 
with him." 

So once again up the hill of dreams 
went the boy. And because of the 
words of his father and mother, he 
wept and smeared his face with dust; 
his muddy hands he lifted to the stars. 
And he raised an earnest voice: "O 
Wakunda! send me a man's dream, 
for I wish to be a big man in my village, 
strong to fight and hunt. The wo- 
man's face is good to see, but I cannot 
laugh for the memory of it. And 
there is an aching in my breast. O 
Wakunda! send me the dream of a 
man! " 

And he slept. And in the middle 
of the night, when shapeless things 
come up out of the hills, and beasts 
and birds talk together with the 
tongues of men, his dream came back. 

Even as before the moon-face floated 
in a lake of cold white fire — a lake that 
drowned the stars. And as he reached 
to push it from him, lo! like a white 
stem growing downward from a flower, 
a body grew beneath it! And there 
was a flashing of white lightning, and 
the Woman of the Moon stood before 
him. 

Then was there a burning in the 



blood of the boy, as she stooped with 
arms held wide; and he was wrapped 
about as with a white fire, through 
which the face grew down with lips 
that burned his lips as they touched, 
and sent pale lightnings flashing 
through him. 

And as the dream woman turned to 
run swiftly back up the star-trails he 
who dreamed reached out his arms and 
clutched at the garments of light that 
he might hold the thing that fled, for 
dearer than life it seemed to him now. 

And he woke His face was in the 
dust. His clutching hands were full of 
dust. 

Wahoo! the bitter hill of dreams! 
Have you climbed it, O White Brother, 
even as I ? 

And in the morning he told the 
dream to his father, who frowned; to 
his mother — and she wept. And they 
said: "This is not a warrior's dream, 
nor is it the dream of a Holy Man ; nor 
yet is it the vision of a mighty bison 
hunter. Some strange new trail this 
boy shall follow — a cloudy, cloudy 
trail! Yet let him go a third time to 
the hill — may not the true dream 
linger?" 

And the boy went up again ; his step 
was light; his heart sang wildly in his 
breast. For once again he wished to 
see the Woman of the Moon. 

But no dream came. And in the 
morning the pinch of grief was upon his 
face and he shook his fists at the 
laughing Day. Then did he and a 
great Ache walk down the hill together. 
All things were little and nothing good 
to see. And in among his people he 
went, staring with eyes that burned 
as with a fever, and lo! he was a 
stranger walking there! Only the 
Dream walked with him. 

And the sunlight burned the blue, 
much-beaded tepee of the sky, and left 
it black; and as it burned and black- 
ened, burned and blackened, he who 
dreamed the strange dream found 
no pleasure in the ways of men. Only 
in gazing upon the round moon did 
he find pleasure. And when even 
this was hidden from him for many 
nights and days he went about with 



THE SINGER OF THE ACHE 



515 



drooping head, and an ache was in his 
eyes. 

And in these days he made wild 
songs ; for never do the happy ones make 
songs — they only sing them. Songs 
that none had heard he made. Not 
such as toilers make to shout about the 
campfires when the meat goes round. 
Yet was the thick hot dust of weary 
trails blown through, them, and cries 
of dying warriors, and shrieks of 
widowed women, and whimpering of 
sick zhinga-zhingas; and also there was 
in them the pang of big man-hearts, 
the ache of toiling women's backs, the 
hunger, the thirst, the wish to live, the 
fear to die! 

So the people said: "Who is this 
nn zhinga who sings of trails he never 
followed, of battles he never fought? 
No father is he— and yet he sings as 
one who has lost a son! Of the pain 
of love he sings — yet never has he 
looked upon a girl! " 

And it was the way of the boy to 
answer: "I seek what I do not find, 
and so I sing! " 

And the nights and days made sum- 
mers and winters, and thus it was with 
the Singer of the Ache, He grew tall 
even to the height of a man — yet was 
he no man. For little did he care to 
hunt, and the love of battles was not 
his. Not his the laughter at the feast- 
fires. Nor did he look upon the face of 
any maiden with soft eyes. 

And the father and mother, who felt 
the first frosts upon their heads, said: 
" Our son is now a man; should he not 
build a lodge and fill it with a woman? 
Should we not hear the laughter of 
zhinga-zhingas once again before we 
take the black trail together?" 

And because his father had many 
ponies, many maidens were brought 
before him for his choosing. But he 
looked coldly upon them and he said : 
"The stars are my sisters and my 
brothers, and the Moon is my wife, 
giving me songs for children. Soon 
shall there be a long trail for me." 

Thereat a cry went up against him 
and more and more he walked a 
stranger. Only the dream walked with 
him ; and he sang the songs that ache. 



Harsh words the father spoke: 
"Does the tribe need songs? Can 
hungry people eat a silly shout, or will 
enemies be conquered with a singing?" 

But the mother wept and said: 
" Say not so of him. Do not his songs 
bring tears, so strange and sweet they 
are at times ? Does a man quarrel with 
the vessel from which he drinks sweet 
waters, even if it be broken and useless 
for the cooking?" 

And the father frowned and said: 
"Give me many laughers, and I will 
conquer all the enemies and fill all the 
kettles of the feasts! Let the weepers 
and makers of tears drag wood with 
the women. Always have I been a 
fighter of battles and a killer of bison. 
This is not my son! " 

And it happened one night that the 
Singer stood alone in the midst of his 
people, when the round moon raised 
a shining forehead out of the dark, 
and grew big and flooded all the hills 
with white light. And the Singer 
raised his arms to it and sang as one 
who loves might sing to a maiden com- 
ing forth flashing with many beads from 
her tepee. 

And the people laughed and a mutter 
ran about: "To whom does the fool 
sing thus?" 

Soft, shining eyes he turned upon 
them, and he said: "Even to the Wo- 
man of the Moon! See where she 
looks into the North with white face 
raised to where the lonesome star hangs 
patient! " 

And the people said: "This is the 
talk of a fool — no woman do we see! " 

And then the Singer sang a new song 
through which these words ran often: 
"Only he sees who can — only he sees 
who can! " 

So now he walked a fool among his 
people, singing the songs that ache. 

Wahool bitter it is to be a fool! And 
yet, O White Brother, only they who 
have been fools are wise at last! 

And it happened one summer that 
the village was builded in th.3 flat lands 
by the Big Smoky Water. And there 
came snoring up the stream a monda 
geeung, the magic fire-boat of the pale- 
faces. Up to the shore it swam, and 



516 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



they who guided it tied it to the sand, 
for its fires were hungry and there was 
much wood in our lands. 

And all the villagers gathered there 
to see the magic swimmer of the pale- 
faces; and among them cams the lone- 
some singing fool. 

And it happened that a woman of 
the pale-faces came forth and stood 
high up, and looked upon us, smiling. 
White as a snowfall in the late spring 
was her face, and her hair was like the 
sun upon a cloud. And we all stared 
wide-mouthed upon her, for never 
before had her kind come into the 
prairies. 

Also stared the fool. Even long 
after all the people had gone he stared; 
even until the smoky breath of the 
fire-boat writhed like a big black 
serpent out of the place where the 
stream runs out of the sky. 

And then he laid his head upon his 
knees and wept; for a longing, bigger 
than the wish to live, or the fear to die, 
had come upon him. 

Very early in the morning, when the 
sleep of all things is deepest, he arose 
from sleepless blankets. He called 
his pony in from the grazing places, and 
he mounted for a long ride. Into the 
North he rode, and as he rode he talked 
to himself and to the silence that clung 
about him: "It was the Woman of the 
Moon! Into the North she went, even 
unto the quiet place where the lonesome 
star hangs patient. There shall I ride 
— there shall I ride! For there do all 
my songs take wings and fly ; and there 
at last their meanings await me. There 
shall I ride — there shall I ride!" 

And the fires of the day burned out 
the stars, and died; downward and 
inward rushed the black, black ashes 
of the night. And still he rode toward 
the North. 

And like the flashing of a midnight 
torch through a hole in a tepee flashed 
the days and passed. And still he 
rode. 

Through many villages of strange 
peoples did he ride, and everywhere 
strange tongues and strange eyes ques- 
tioned him; and he answered: "Into 



the North I ride to find the Woman 
of the Moon! " 

And the people pitied him, because 
he seemed as one whose head was filled 
with ghostly things; and they fed him. 

Further and further into the waste 
places he pushed, making the empty 
spaces sweet and sad with his singing ; 
and the winter came. Thin and lean 
he grew, and his pony grew lean and 
thin. 

And the white, mad spirits of the 
snow beat about the two. And now 
and then snow ghosts writhed up out 
of the ground and twisted and twirled 
and moaned, until they took on the 
shape of her he sought. And ever he 
followed them; and ever they fell back 
into the ground. And the world was 
bitter cold. 

Wahoo! the snow ghosts that we fol- 
low, O White Brother! 

And the time came when the pony 
was no longer a pony, but a quiet heap 
of bones; and upon this sat the man 
who walked for the moon. Then did 
the strength go out of him, and he 
turned his sharp face in to the South. 
He sang no more for many days, for 
his body was as a lodge in which a fair 
woman lies dead with no mourners 
around. And at last he wakened in 
a strange lodge in a village of strangers. 

And it happened that when the green 
things pushed upward into the sun 
again a young man who seemed very 
old, for he was bent, his face was thin, 
his eyes were very big, hobbled back 
into the village of his people. 

And he went to a lodge which was 
empty, for the father with his frowning 
and the mother with her weeping had 
taken the long trail, upon which comes 
no moon and never the sun rises — but 
the stars are there. 

Many days he lay within the lone- 
some lodge. And it happened that a 
maiden, one whom he had pushed 
aside in other days, came into the 
lodge with meat and water. 

So at last he said: "I have sought 
and have not found ; therefore will I be* 
as other men. I will fill this lodge 
with a woman — and this is she. Hence- 



THE SINGER OF THE ACHE 



517 



forth I shall forget the dream that led 
me; I shall be a hunter of bison and a 
killer of enemies; for after all, what 
else?" 

And this he did. 

So all the village buzzed with kindly 
words. "The fool has come back 
wise! " they said. 

And as the seasons passed there 
grew the laughter of zhinga-zhingas 
in the lodge of the man who walked 
no more for the moon. 

But a sadness was upon his face. 
And after a while the dream came 
back and brought the singing. Less 
and less he looked upon the woman and 
the children. Less and less he sought 
the bison, until at last Hunger came 
into that lodge and sat beside the fire. 

Then again the old cry of the people 
grew up: "The fool still lives! He 
sings while his lodge is empty. His 
woman has become a stranger to him, 
and his children are as though a 



stranger had fathered them! Shall 
the fool eat and only sing? " 

And a snarling cry grew up: "Cast 
out the fool! " 

And it was done. 

So out of the village stumbled the 
singing fool, and his head was bloody 
with the stones the people threw. 
Very old he seemed, though his years 
were not many. Into the North he 
went, and after a while men saw his 
face no more. 

But lo! many seasons passed and yet 
he lived and was among all peoples! 
For often on hot dusty trails weary 
men sat down to sing his songs; and 
women, weeping over fallen braves, 
found his songs upon their lips. And 
when the hunger came his strange 
wild cries went among the people. 
And all were comforted! 

And this, O White Brother, is the 
story of the fool who walked for the 
moon! 



The Magic of the Invisible 

BY GEORGE E. WOODS. 

I SEE not the brook — I hear it — 
All of a summer long; 
Under a brake of roses 
What is a brook but song? 

A woman is she when with me, 
And sweet to my heart's desire; 

But when she is absent from me, 
She is spirit — and dream — and fire! 



His Waterloo 

\ TH-YAS, and dar was Brudder Borax Jones," reminiscently said 
y< ~ J old Brother Smoot, "he was alius pompousin' around wid a chip on his 
shoulder and noratin' dat he could whup a di'mon'-head rattlesnake, and let 
de varmint have de fust bite. But — uck! — bime-bye he mar'd a saddle-cullud, 
red-headed 'ooman — dem red-headed wenches ain't common, but when yo' 
finds one she's sho'ly like what dey say old Gin'l Sherman done said war was! — 
and, muh suzz, atter dat yo' could take a turkey-tail feather and drive Brudder 
Borax plumb into de creek wid it! Yassah! " 



The Farmer Landlord 



BY HUGH J. HUGHES 



THE farmer landlord is becom- 
ing an important factor in 
our society. His influence 
grows yearly more measurable. His 
position in our economic life is appar- 
ently assured. His existence, like 
that of any absentee landlord, is a 
threat to rural prosperity. 

The underlying causes for his ap- 
pearance in our life are twofold — 
social and economic. 

The past decade has been one of 
great general prosperity. In this pros- 
perity the farm has shared in large 
degree. Crops have been good, prices 
have been good, and as a result of this, 
coupled with increasing population 
and decreasing free lands, the value of 
farming properties has steadily risen 
throughout the Mississippi-Missouri 
Valley. This rise in farm values, while 
it is, from the industrial standpoint, 
a mere watering of valuation, enables 
the farmer to increase the rental of 
his land, and thereby secure to him- 
self a good income without the neces- 
sity of personal labor. 

It is an economic truth that rental 
will absorb all the laborer will bear. 
If he cannot obtain other lands, if he 
does not know of better opportunities, 
or knowing, if he cannot avail himself 
of them, the owner can fix a rental 
which will leave the tenant only an 
average of fair wages. The average 
rental value of a Western farm is ap- 
proximately fixed by the loaning rates 
of money. That is, a $40 per acre 
farm should return to its Missouri 
Valley owner from 6 to 8 per cent. net. 

In practice this is somewhat modi- 
fied by the " shares " system of renting. 
Briefly, this is as follows: 
518 



The owner furnishes the land and 
seed, and pays one-half the threshing 
bill. 

The renter furnishes the labor, pays 
all expenses incurred in running the 
farm, the seed bill and threshing bill 
as before stated excepted, and receives 
in return one-half the crop, either at 
the machine or in the elevator. 

This is a common and simple form 
of land tenure. Farther East, where 
dairying and stock-raising are leading 
industries, the terms are more involved, 
but the essential principle is the same 
— the return to the owner of the largest 
possible rental with the smallest possi- 
ble cash outlay. It will be generally 
admitted that land tenure in the grain- 
growing West is fairly equitable. The 
free lands are too near, the population 
is too mobile, the opportunities to 
better oneself are too many for the 
owner to demand excessive rentals. 
With us the cash system is little known, 
partly because it involves extra risk 
on the part of the tenant, and partly 
because the owner can gain more, 
in a term of years, by the "shares" 
system of renting. 

Yet favorably as we tenants are 
situated, the fact is that the owner 
gets considerably more than an even 
share of the farm's income. 

Look at it a moment. The farmer, 
owning a half-section of land with 
house and barn, the total valuation of 
which is in the neighborhood of $6,000, 
rents this land to a man with a family. 
Seed costs him possibly $300. Allow 
$200 for taxes and repairs to buildings. 
The threshing bill will depend, of 
course, upon the crop, but at a fair 
average his share will not exceed $250. 



THE FARMER LANDLORD 



519 



Then he has invested for the year 
less than $7,000, but say $7,000 for our 
purpose of illustration. 

On the other hand, the farmer has 
invested himself, his tenant, his hired 
labor and his machinery. The value 
of these is not so easy to determine, but 
a rough approximation may be made. 
First, then, the farmer himself. The 
earning value of himself and wife is 
not far from $45 per month. This 
capitalized means, at current loaning 
rates of money, a money valuation 
of $4,000. His teams, machinery, 
hired labor and living expenses will 
foot up not far from $3,000 additional. 
In other words, his invested capital 
equals that of the owner, with this dif- 
ference: much — one might say all — of 
his capital consists of perishable matter, 
the value of which rapidly deteriorates. 

Now as to returns. When the 
threshing machine is gone the owner 
takes, on a fair average yield, one-half 
of 3,000 bushels of wheat and one-half 
of 2,500 bushels of oats. The wheat 
sells for, let us say, 75 cents. Then his 
account stands as follows: 

By 1,500 bu. wheat at 75c. per bu. $1,125 .00 
1,250 " oats " 25c. " " 312.50 

Total income $1,437 . 50 

Charged to threshing $250.00 

' ' taxes, repairs and seed 5 00 . 00 

Total outlay $750 . 00 

Net income $687 . 50 

A pretty fair return for $7,000 
invested. 

Now for the tenant. His account 

will stand something after this fashion : 

Total income $1,437 • 5° 

Charged to threshing $250.00 

" living 500.00 

hired help 300 . 00 

" sinking fund 300 . 00 

Total outlay $1,350.00 

Net income $87 . c;o 

That is the story, reduced to cold 
figures, of the result of the labors of the 
tenant farmer. That gives, in a nut- 
shell, the economic reason for the ex- 
istence of the farmer landlord. 

Tenants get ahead financially, but 



how? By doing two men's work, by 
curtailing living expenses, by working 
their little boys and girls on the gang- 
plow and the drill. Perhaps it is 
necessary — and perhaps it is not. 

A reply right here to those who 
would criticize these figures and deny 
their value. They are figures striking 
a fair average of running cost and re- 
turns to landlord and tenant as the 
writer knows them and has taken 
them from his farming records. They 
show just what the landlord claims — 
that he can make as much by renting 
his farm as he can by farming it him- 
self, and save himself the labor and 
the risk involved in actual farming. 

The economic argument for the 
existence of a farmer landlord class is 
strong in its final appeal to the pocket- 
book. What shall be said of the social 
causes ? 

When a farmer finds himself growing 
well into the forties, with boys and 
girls of high-school age about him, 
when he realizes that education is to 
play a constantly more important part 
in the problem of getting a living, 
when he sees his old neighbors renting 
their farms and moving into town he 
grows uneasy. He begins to wonder 
what it would cost to live in town; 
how it would feel to jostle shoulders 
with the banker; how it would feel to 
see his boy a business man, his girl a 
society woman. He begins to see his 
own life as a sort of grind. The glamour 
of the town is over him. In general 
his wife and children are eager for the 
change. It is made. The house in 
town become the home. The farm 
becomes a place from which the an- 
nual income is drawn. 

The farmer in town is not, socially, 
a success. Perhaps I ought not to 
say that without some qualification. 
What I wish to make clear is this: No 
matter how well received he may be, 
no matter how welcome to society, 
there is always a feeling of being ill at 
ease. Culture is a deep thing. The 
farmer may be cultured, but the super- 
ficial polish that marks "society" he 
has not, and seldom succeeds in getting. 
He has detached himself from the one 



520 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



calling he knows, without finding a 
place in the idlers' world. Books, 
music, art, the drama, do not as a rule 
mean very much to him. He would 
rather sit on a grocery counter and 
tell horse-swapping stories than dress 
for an evening party. I really do not 
know of any other man so much to be 
pitied as the farmer, still hale and 
strong, who tries to content himself 
with an idle life in town. 

Whatever may be the ultimate effect, 
socially and in a business way, upon 
his family, removing to town is a bad 
thing for the farmer. He rusts out. 
He is without occupation for brain or 
hands. He is one of earth's idlers — 
and the fact galls him. He putters 
around his little garden, playing at 
farming. He becomes an "odd jobs" 
man. Perhaps he has his club where 
he and his farmer cronies live over, 
between the long silences and the pipes 
of tobacco, their part in the history 
of the West. His dream of social life 
is nothing but delusion — and all too 
late he knows it. 

These, then, the reality and the 
dream, are the things which attract 
men from the farm cityward. And so 
long as the dream continues to flaunt 
its vision of social enjoyment, and so 
long as the hard business fact of 
financial independence and release from 
grinding labor holds true, just so long 
will men vend their goods, rent their 
farms and move to town. 

The remedy for this admittedly 
undesirable condition of affairs is not 
to wage war against rentals. The 
better remedy is to widen the social 
life of the farm. The postal depart- 
ment reports that the rural mail routes 
are largely accountable for the heavy 
deficit in that department. I think it 
is not too much to say that the Govern- 
ment could well- afford to maintain 
the rural mail routes even did they 
not return one cent of revenue to the 
postal funds. There are some things, 
the vital assets of a nation, which you 
cannot place in the budget balance. 
That is one of them. The telephones, 
interlacing neighborhoods, have done 
much to break down the old feelings 



of isolation and of clannishness. They 
are more than mere business aids. 
They, too, help to broaden the farmer's 
sphere of interest, and to extend his 
sympathies. The trolley is bringing to 
him the advantage of city life with- 
out its drawbacks. Where it goes he 
becomes part of a great community 
that compels quickened thought and 
higher thinking. 

And yet! The results are meagre- 
meagre ! After all is said, it is hunger — 
hunger of the soul — that urges men of 
mature years to exchange comfort for a 
plantation. And all the rural mail, and 
the trolley lines, and the telephones can- 
not feed that hunger. We must educate ! 
Educate the boy to the meaning and 
the beauty of country life; educate the 
man to the fact that the farm is the 
best place where he ever may hope to 
live. Educate both to broader ideals. 
Lay broader and deeper the founda- 
tions of our present public school sys- 
tem. Put life into it. Teach the 
beauty of rural life. Do not stint the 
measure that is given to the farmer 
children. All the richest of song and 
of history and of science is none too 
good for the children of the farm. The 
farmer, more than other men, needs 
culture; the farmer, more than most 
other men, lacks it. And culture is a 
life process. 

If the tendency toward absentee own- 
ership of our farms is to be checked, 
we must find not only the causes that 
impel men to leave their homes and 
fields to the care of others ; we must also 
find the remedy — a widening of their 
outlook upon the world. 

In time we will come to look upon 
farming as it really is — a noble voca- 
tion, full of beauty, of opportunity, of 
chance for culture. Then men will not 
leave the farm for the city because of 
the advantages offered by the latter. 
Rather, the reverse will be true, and 
men will find true enjoyment and 
pleasure, as well as profit, in the culti- 
vation of their own farms. 

When? 

When we make farming a profession. 
When we make the farm the centre of 
culture. 



The Politician: According to Bobby Jonks 

IF a skunk was a noise instead of an odor you could kick him once and hear 
him for two miles and several days, but a. politician wears a bland smile and 
warmly shakes your hand whether he knows you or not. 

One nice thing about the skunk is that there are so few of him. He is so self- 
respecting that he never hunts you up to thrust his unwelcome presence upon you, 
while 'most any time when you are going through the woods a-whistling and 
wotting not you are liable to encounter a congressman-at-large. That is what 
is known as paying too dear for your whistle. A politician will say anything and 
do anything to get elected, declaring at the top of his voice that he was born 
between two hills of corn, as it were, and would rather be right than be President, 
when in reality he is in no more danger of being either or eyther, as the case may 
be, than me and you are this minute, but the little animal I have just mentioned 
remains silent but ominous, giving and asking no quarter, and defying the navies 
of the world, so to express it. My Uncle Bob says, as far as he is concerned, he'd 
rather be wrong than be a member of the legislature, and if that be treason make 
the most of it — which I say is right ! 

Politicians kiss babies ; there are many less babies to the square foot nowadays 
than there used to be, and much more politicians. From this we should suspect 
that politics is fatal to the young and ought to be prohibited, like whisky and 
the oil of tobacco. Patrick Henry said, as for him, give him Liberty or give him 
Death, and they gave him one or the other, or both — I forget which, now. John 
Hancock was a great man. He didn't talk loud, but he could write louder than 
'most anybody of his time. The names of the rest of the fellers that signed the 
Declaration of Independence merely look like citizens on foot, and then here 
comes the big, portly signature of John Hancock in carriages, and you never 
remember any of the rest of them at all. 

Once there was a little boy who defined " demagogue " as " a vessel for holding 
wines and other liquors," and everybody laughed at him. But, all the same, 
he was nearer right than the folks that made a mock of him, for the word comes 
from "demi," meaning half, and "gog," to nod; and we all know how pleasantly 
a politician will nod when the demijohn is mentioned. If I was as smart as some 
older people I could name, I'd look it up in the dictionary before I laughed at an 
innocent little boy! 

You'd naturally think that the skunk was a spoiled child, but in reality he was 
born so, while the politician is first honest and then "the Hon." This is all I 
know about the skunk — I mean, the politician. 



Chopping Him Off 



13 ORROWBY — Ah, Grimshaw ! May I see you apart for just a moment ? 
-*-' Grimshaw — Don't come apart. Was born in one piece. 
521 



A CURE FOR THE GOLD FEVER 

BY 

ALICE LOUISE LEE 




JO SLEEPER sat in his room read- 
ing a small but aspiring Wyoming 
sheet, the Meeteetse News. The 
article which held his attention 
was a short and glowing account 
of a new mining camp in the Sho- 
shone Mountains, five thousand feet 
nearer heaven than was Meeteetse, 
although both were located in Big 
Horn County. 

" . . . . the stranger is sur- 
prised," he read, "to see the buildings 
which have recently been erected in 
Miner's Camp, stores, hotels and resi- 
dences that would be a credit to a 
much older camp — there is a better 
promise of good ore here than existed 
in the Black Hills — capital is flowing 
into this new mining region at such a 
rate that it behooves would-be invest- 
ors to hurry up if they want to get in 
on the ground floor. It is a beautiful, 
happy and healthful camp and is here 
to stay." 

"I wish it was not," commented Jo 
grimly. 

Laying the paper aside with a delib- 
eration which characterized all his 
movements, he took his square, beard- 
less face between his hands and thought. 
He had never caught the gold fever 
himself, but his nearest neighbors had, 
and the result was not satisfactory to 
Jo. He had no objection to Mrs. 
Power's taking charge of a boarding- 
house in Miner's Camp. He had not 
the slightest objection to Mr. Power's 
prancing attendance there on his wife, 
but he did object to Wyoming's swal- 
lowing up the third member of the 
Power family. 

"It'll be too rough a place to take 
Georgie to," he remarked bluntly to 
Georgie's parents as he sat on their 
porch the following afternoon. 
522 



"Rough!" echoed Mrs. Power. "If 
you mean the people, Jo, you know the 
gallantry and reverence Western men 
have for a woman is proverbial." It 
was the sixth time Mrs. Power had 
made the same remark in Jo's hearing. 
" Will writes me" — Will was a Western 
cousin, who, as local manager for the 
Miner's Camp Mineral Company, was 
responsible for the flitting of the 
Powers — "that Georgie will be a great 
addition to the society of the place. It 
will be greatly to Georgie's advantage 
to go as well as ours." 

Mrs. Power spoke firmly. She was 
nothing if not firm, being the reverse of 
her husband who, as she often re- 
marked, was ready at any minute "to 
fly off the handle, and tell everything 
he knows! " She gave out only such 
portions of knowledge as would re- 
dound to the credit of the family. 

Mr. Power sat now in the easiest 
chair on the porch, his eyes round with 
anticipation of investments in gold 
mines, his confidential tongue checked 
by the presence of his wife, his shoes 
nervously tapping the floor. He oc- 
casionally passed his fingers in a flurried 
manner over his head, thereby disar- 
ranging the few hairs carefully plastered 
across the crown by frequent appli- 
cations of Hosford's Hair Restorer. 

"Pennsylvania," pursued Mrs. 
Power evenly, "is a good place to be 
born in and die in, but if a body wants 
to amount to anything between times, 
the West is the place for 'em to live in 
and invest in." 

"A man might settle down in this 
slow country and starve, really starve!" 
interpolated Mr. Power, bouncing about 
in his chair. 

Looking at Mr. Power's attenuated 
figure one might have taken his words 



A CURE FOR THE GOLD FEVER 



523 



literally, but the substantial form of his 
thirty-year helpmeet proved them 
only figurative. 

"Georgie," continued Mrs. Power, 
her words flowing undisturbed under 
her husband's excited remarks, "will 
have opportunities in the West which 
she lacks in the East." 

What thos eopportunities were Mrs. 
Power did not state, but Mr. Power 
did, the moment she had disappeared 
into the kitchen. He hitched along the 
boards until he could lay a confidential 
hand on Jo's shoulder. 

44 We want her to marry rich, Jo," 
in a rasping whisper. "We're ex- 
pectin' to make a little pile ourselves 
off the boarding-house and investin' the 
same in the mine — that's for old age — 
but we want Georgie to marry rich. 
The woods are full of rich old bachs 
out there, Jo, and a pretty girl can have 
her pick. Plenty of rich men, plenty." 
This information also was adapted from 
the letters of the sanguine Western 
cousin. "And," finished Mr. Power, 
"there ain't anything too good for 
Georgie." 

"I agree with you," replied Jo, 
steadily shaking the twitching hand 
from his shoulder. 

He sat on the edge of the porch, his 
hands clasped about his knees, gazing 
down the narrow valley flanked by low, 
fertile hills. Here and there were 
groups of trees waving lazily in the 
breeze. Fields of sprouting grain, 
green with the June rains, lay on either 
side of a winding creek. Up from the 
west rolled fleecy clouds sweeping 
shapeless shadows beneath them across 
the valley. 

"I wonder," said Jo under his breath, 
"if you'll see anything better than 
this." Then he rose, drawn by a 
sound from the orchard. A sweet, 
girlish voice was singing "The Old 
Kentucky Home." 

"I'll find Georgie," he said briefly 
to Mr. Power. ' Jo's words were always 
brief. His strength lay in his actions. 

At the kitchen door stood Mrs. 
Power and a neighbor. " I intend to 
keep plenty of hired girls," Georgie's 
mother was saying, "for I intend that 



Georgie shall have every social advan- 
tage in the place. She sha'n't be 
tied up in the kitchen. I can afford 
to hire help with a houseful of men 
payin' nine a week for board." Her 
voice ceased as her sharp eyes followed 
Jo through the short lane and into 
the old orchard. 

Under the early harvest tree in the 
grass, a row of green apples spread 
childishly around her, sat a girl singing 
blithely. "Hello, Jo! "she called merrily. 

His only response was a smile, and 
had he known it, the girl never came 
so near loving him as when he smiled. 
All that was good and true in his nature 
appeared in his smile, and no one 
else coaxed so many from him as 
did Georgie, light-hearted, fun-loving, 
scarlet-lipped Georgie. 

"Ge-or-gie," came her mother's per- 
emptory tones from the back porch. 
"Ge-or-gie, come here at once." 

The girl laughed roguishly. She 
knew why her mother called, and she 
knew that Jo knew. The smile disap- 
peared from his lips and his eyes 
hardened. 

"Are you going?" 

"Of course," laughed Georgie, hold- 
ing up her hands for assistance in 
rising. "When my mother calls I 
must go." 

Jo lifted her to her feet and then 
stood holding both her small hands 
tightly. "Georgie, will you stay with 
me? " he asked simply. " I want you." 

It was an oft -repeated question, but 
one Georgie could not meet with her 
usual coquetry. It always stirred 
her deeply to see the pleading in the 
man's dark eyes, the wistfulness in his 
clean-cut face and feel the tenderness 
which overflowed toward her in his 
manner, but never in his words. 

Therefore she replied gently, "I 
wish I cared enough, Jo, indeed I do!" 

There was no urging. He dropped 
her hands, saying quietly, "It's not 
your fault that you can't, Georgie." 

The tears sprang to her eyes as they 
walked along in silence. She was 
never so womanly, so true to herself 
as when she was with Jo. 

At the orchard gate they stopped. 



524 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



"I've been thinking, Georgie, that it 
is possible the West may disappoint 
you. If it does, I want you to remem- 
ber that your old home is waiting for 
you, with orwithoutme, as you choose." 

Jo had purchased the Power home- 
stead just as it stood. The boarding- 
house, so wrote the cousin, contained 
all necessary furnishings. 

Georgie impulsively laid her hand 
on his arm. "There's no one quite 
like you, Jo; I'll remember." 

Two days later the stage was being 
heaped with the Powers' personal 
effects, while the elder Powers bade 
their neighbors a joyful farewell. 
Fragments of Mrs. Power's speech 
reached Jo as he assisted the stage 
driver with the baggage. "Home- 
sick? Of course not — nine dollars a 
week. I shall make arrangements to 
take more at once — Georgie — the soci- 
ety life of the place — gallantry of West- 
ern men — investment in my cousin's 
mines — " Into his wife's steady speech 
Mr. Power continually and excitedly 
butted. Mr. Power was in his element. 
He was clad in a new suit and a white 
waistcoat, his hair a shade darker than 
usual owing to a compound dose of 
Hosford's Hair Restorer. He could 
scarcely wait until the stage started, 
so anxious was he to set out for the 
land of gold mines. 

" Good-bye, Jo," he called finally, 
and his tone held a note of pity for the 
man he was leaving in possession of 
the old homestead. 

As the stage rolled away, neither 
Mr. nor Mrs. Power glanced back, 
but Georgie looked around with wet 
eyes and waved her hand at Jo, who 
smiled gravely and then turned back 
into his new possessions. With a 
great loneliness in his heart he made 
a circuit of the rooms, many of which 
were familiar to him. Upstairs there 
was one which he decided should re- 
main untouched. It opened on the 
front balcony and was furnished in 
blue and white, Georgie's favorite 
colors. It was as dainty as the girl 
herself, and when Jo closed the door 
and backed up against it, looking 
around, the blood burned his cheeks 



and a strangling sob forced its way 
through his throat. The white mull 
curtains tied with blue ribbons, the 
mull dresser cover, the clean, white 
wallpaper with its blue forget-me-nots 
all spoke a language to him which 
smote hard on his loyal heart. Ap- 
proaching the white-robed bed he 
stooped and touched his lips to the 
pillow. As he arose, a scrap of paper 
lying on the floor caught his eye. It 
was a bit torn from a letter in Mrs. 
Power's writing. 

men in the West are so 
courteous and gallant. We expect our 
Georgie . 

Jo read with smarting eyes and 
crushed the paper in a strong hand as 
he locked the door. "It was always 
'Almost, Jo!' with her," he thought, 
"and now it will never be with all 
those gallant Westerners around. Her 
mother will be sure to write to me 
about them! " he ended bitterly. 

But to his surprise Mrs. Power did 
not write immediately. Summer 
dragged itsjlf to an end and autumn 
followed, equally tedious to Jo. Not 
until early December did the expected 
letter arrive the contents whereof 
were totally unlike Mr:,. Power. The 
letter was a masterpiece of vagueness. 

'There's nothing about Power, nor 
Georgie, nor gallantry — nor investing 
in gold mines — no, nor anything else," 
said Jo in bewilderment after he read 
it. 

The last was the only definite sen- 
tence in the letter and that he re-read 
several times. At the second reading 
he raised his eyebrows. An idea began 
to dawn on him. When he had read it 
the third time he whistled and said 
aloud: " No, I won't — but I'll take 'em 
to you! ' 

The sentence was abrupt. "Jo, do 
you suppose you could send me a box 
of greenings from the old tree under 
Georgie's window? I always have had 
apple dumplings Christmas and I can't 
get apples here that taste like the home 
ones." 

That illuminating sentence started 
Jo West five days before Christmas. 
A delayed train stalled him in Chicago 






A CURE FOR THE GOLD FEVER 



525 



twenty-four hours, and it was not until 
the morning before Christmas that he 
left the Cody stage at Meeteetse and 
climbed into the Miner's Camp stage. 

"Goin' up to the diggin's to stay?" 
asked the driver, gathering up the reins 
of his four broncos and regarding his 
passenger out of the tail of a roving 
eye. Jehu wore chaps and a fur coat 
whose inside pocket contained a bottle, 
the contents of which unduly animated 
his tongue. 

" No, " replied Jo. Then , his thoughts 
reverting to the article in the Meeteetse 
News, he inquired, "What's the best 
hotel in Miner's Camp ? " 

Jehu screwed up his left eye in won- 
der. " Hotels in the diggin's! Well, 
I've yet to hear of any. There's 
Uncle Josh's boarding-house and the 
Powers'. Better go to Powers . Get 
good grub there and see a damned 
pretty girl." The driver turned his 
whisky-flushed face on Jo and grinned. 
"Don't strike her trail, though, unless 
you want to be right in fashion, the 
latest style. But if ye do strike it, git 
a good six-shooter, for you'll need it! " 

Jo opened his lips for an unwise reply, 
but a blast of wind sucking down Wood 
River Canon carried away the words, 
and he bent his head to the gale. 

As they crossed the meadows, the 
driver asked suddenly: "Ever meet 
old Dude?" 

"Who?" in astonishment. 

" Old Dude Power. He struck camp 
with a bald-faced vest on, and a cut- 
throat collar. Gosh! The Lord must 
have got out of good dirt when he made 
that fool and give him sixteen hairs 
to plaster over his crown! If 'twan't for 
his girl the boys would have the time 
of their lives with that old merry-go- 
round. But say! the old lady's a 
hustler when she's alive." 

" Alive! " echoed Jo. 

The driver shook his head. "Alti- 
tude don't agree with her. Heart lays 
her by for repairs most of the time." 

The rest of the journey was accom- 
plished without further conversation. 
Up rose themountains on each side of the 
narrow canon until they cut the heav- 
ens, leaving only a streak of tempestu- 



ous sky between. With his eyes on the 
mountains and his thoughts on the 
driver's words concerning Georgie, Jo 
was finally aroused by a swing of the 
stage around a wooded curve and be- 
fore him lay — not the Miner's Camp 
of the Meeteetse News — but the real 
camp in its winter ugliness and forlorn - 
ness, a few dirt-chinked log cabins 
huddled beneath tall Spar. 

The driver indicated a shack standing 
apart from the rest and smacked his 
lips. "Saloon's full. Boys are all in 
to celebrate — tomorrow's Christmas, 
you know. And here's the Powers'," 
he added, drawing in his leaders in front 
of a long, low cabin, "and there's the 
Dude himself! " 

The door of the shack was open, and 
in it stood a man whom at first Jo did 
not recognize on account of his pro- 
truding waistcoat and thin white hairs 
guiltless of Hosford's Hair Restorer. 

Then, "Why, Jo Sleeper!" cried a 
familiar voice, and this caricature of the 
old-time Power rushed out to greet his 
guest effusively, well-nigh tearfully. 
"What brought you out here?" he in- 
quired, wringing the other's hands. 
Without awaiting a reply his tones sank 
to their confidential key. "Jo, I want 
to tell you before ma gets hold of you. 
Don't come to this — " he glanced 
furtively around and then approached 
the young man's ear, while the word 
burst out with a relish — " damned 
place to get rich. There ain't any gold 
here, for sure. These fellows just work 
on and on thinkin' there will be, some 
time. They're plumb gone quartz 
crazy. Jo, instead of gettin' rich here, 
you'll be apt to get fat!" This last 
was spoken in bitterness of spirit. 
The climate had agreed with Mr. Power 
to the extent of seventy-five encumber- 
ing additional pounds of flesh. 

Jo sought to check this confidential 
torrent by leading the way to the 
shack. Inside the door he paused and 
glanced round, barely suppressing an 
exclamation at the bareness which met 
his eyes. This, then, was Georgie's 
setting — the natural log walls uncov- 
ered and unornamented, the bare, un- 
even pine board floor, the rough home- 



526 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



made chairs and benches, the unblacked 
heater, whose pipe stretched crooked 
upward through the roof in place of a 
chimney. Hardship and discomfort 
were represented everywhere. 

A few men sat around silently view- 
ing the newcomer. They were a few 
of the quartz-crazy boarders awaiting 
supper. The remainder were over in 
the saloon. Jo sat down beside the 
box stove and held his hands to the 
warmth, his eyes wandering from a 
door behind the long oilcloth-covered 
board table to a heavy dark curtain, 
which divided the room behind the 
stove. 

"Ma is in there," Power whispered. 
"She'll see you after supper. She's 
ailin' worse than usual today. Guess 
it's because tomorrow's Christmas 'way 
out here." The remark was am- 
biguous, but Jo, nodding, thought he 
understood as his host disappeared 
behind the curtain. 

Presently the door behind the table 
swung back and, in the doorway, her 
hands full of dishes, stood Georgie — an 
altered Georgie. There was not a ves- 
tige of color on her once rounded 
cheeks until she glanced up and saw Jo. 
Then the blood rushed rich and red to 
her face and the dishes dropped on the 
table with a clatter. 

Her confusion was but momentary. 
Instantly she raised her head with a 
dignity he had never seen in her and 
came forward with outstretched hand. 
"I am surprised — Jo — and glad to see 
you." She spoke quietly and turned 
at once to the men. " Supper is ready. 
Sit here, Jo." Then under cover of 
the noise of moving shoes and chairs 
she explained in a low tone. "I am 
obliged to stay in the kitchen while 
father waits on table. We have no 
help." 

That his meeting with Georgie had 
produced a sensation among the men 
Jo felt rather than saw. It seemed to 
him that the atmosphere was charged 
with emotional dynamite, just ready to 
explode. He thought- of the stage 
driver's warning and glanced from face 
to face around the table while Mr. 
Power, an apron enveloping his ample 



form, his face red with exertion and 
humiliation, supplied the place of the 
lacking waitress. 

The boarders ate hurriedly, and al- 
most in silence, leaving the table and 
the house one by one. The rising 
volume of drunken sound over in the 
saloon told of their destination. The 
camp, generally orderly enough, had 
let itself loose for the celebration of 
Christmas. 

" Listen, Jo," whispered Power, when 
the last man had departed. "They're 
good fellows enough most of the time, 
but holidays the prospectors and 
ranchmen come in from all around and 
then it's awful. Of course it's no 
danger to us — I'm not afraid, Jo — " 
his teeth were chattering — "but they 
shoot for fun, just smoke up the lights 
in the saloon and blaze at anything 
they come across promiscuous and 
when you think there ain't a law officer 
this side Meeteetse, thirty miles away, 
and if there was he'd be probably 
drunk " 

"Father," Georgie's voice broke in 
on the torrential whisper. "Here's 
mother's supper. She wants to see Jo 
after she eats it. Will you take it to 
her ? " Then she sat down and made a 
pretense of eating her own supper. 
There was an expression of appre- 
hension in the big, tired eyes which she 
raised to Jo's and a drawn look around 
them that went to his heart. 

He looked at her hands, cracked and 
red, and then around the room, deso- 
late, ill-lighted, unhomelike. " Poor 
little girl," he whispered, covering her 
hand as it lay on the table. "Life 
here is hard for you." 

Tears filled the girl's eyes. She did 
not withdraw her hand at once — in- 
stead, she looked away with a catch in 
her breath that sounded like a sob to 
Jo, who raised her unresisting hand 
against his cheek, repeating, "Poor 
little girl." 

When she answered him her voice 
was not quite steady. "Yes, life is 
hard here with mother sick. We can 
get no help — but all that, Jo, is not so 
difficult to bear as — some other things." 

Joe's thoughts flashed back again to 



A CURE FOR THE GOLD FEVER 



527 



the stage driver's comments and to the 
atmosphere which enveloped the men 
at the table, but he asked no questions. 

"Jo! Jo Sleeper!" called a weak 
voice from behind the curtain. " I've 
finished my supper. Come here." 

Just behind Georgie was an un- 
curtained window, and as Jo rose he 
saw a man flash out of sight. "Oh," 
exclaimed Georgie beneath her breath. 
She, too, had caught a glimpse of the 
intruder. She pushed her chair back 
hastily. "Go in to mother, Jo. I — I 
am afraid of my shadow tonight, I 
think." She laughed nervously. 

Mrs. Power was sitting up in bed 
leaning against her pillows, her hand 
held to her left side, breathing hur- 
riedly from the excitement of seeing 
her old neighbor. She was emaciated 
and yellow-skinned. Her eyes, unnat- 
urally large, shone feverishly as she 
talked. 

"Jo, don't you go back to Penn- 
sylvania and tell 'em how we're situ- 
ated," she implored, with a vestige 
of her old domineering pride. "It'll 
be different by and bye when I get 
used to the altitude. Georgie won't 
have to work so hard then — and we'll 
lay something by to invest when my 
cousin strikes gold " 

"Lord!" burst out a voice behind 
Jo. Mr. Power had pushed aside the 
curtains. "Invest! We won't ever 
have anything to invest along of the 
awful prices here and gettin' -a doctor 
from a hundred miles away and " 

His wife quelled him with a severe 
glance as she continued: "In time 
we shall probably be able to secure 
help " 

"There ain't a woman within thirty- 
five miles except ma and Georgie," Mr. 
Power interpolated obstinately. 

Mrs. Power's fingers picked at the 
blankets. "Then we can look more 
like home here." Her voice lingered 
on the word "home." 

Jo glanced around the curtains and 
cramped space containing two beds, 
and thought of the dainty, airy blue 
and white room opposite his own. It 
was just as Georgie had left it. 

Presently, in a voice intended to 



appear careless, Mrs. Power asked: 
"Does the old place look natural?" 
But she turned a face to Jo which was 
filled with unmistakable longing as 
he spoke of the crops, of the fine yield 
of greenings on the tree outside Geor- 
gie 's window, and the slight changes 
his housekeeper had made. 

As he talked, sounds from the saloon 
became louder and louder. " The boys 
are having their — their fun," explained 
Mrs. Power apologetically. "They 
don't do that regularly, but it's Christ- 
mas Eve, you know," and Jo, arising, 
refrained from any question concerning 
the gallantry of Western men. 

As he dropped the curtain behind 
him, followed by Mr. Power, he came 
face to face with Georgie. She was 
pale, but her eyes were blazing. A 
shawl lay over her shoulders and her 
hair was wind tumbled. Impulsively 
she laid her hand on Jo's breast and 
pushed him back. 

"You are in danger, Jo," she whis- 
pered. " If the men were sober there 
would be no trouble, but they are all 
drunk. Go back with mother. You'll 
be safe there." 

At her first words Jo came to a 
standstill and looked down at Georgie 
while Mr. Power noiselessly slipped 
between the curtains again and slid 
under his wife's bed. Outside of the 
shack arose vague sounds. Georgie 
moved between the window and Jo, 
speaking in a low, rapid tone, while 
the blood colored her white face: 

"I must tell you plainly, Jo — • 
they're in a jangle over me, jealous, 
although I've never given them cause 
to be. There have been threats of 
shooting among themselves. I 've been 
dreading tonight and tomorrow on that 
account, but someone saw you through 
the window as we sat at the supper 
table and they're all drunk and against 
you." There was a confusion of low 
sounds outside and a smothered laugh. 
"They put it that they are going to 
take you out for some fun — Jo, you 
must not fall into their hands. They're 
armed and drunk. You don't know 
what that means here." 

Once more she tried to push him 



52S 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



back, but she was pushing against a 
rock. Outside a call arose: "Hey, 
Dude, send that tenderfoot out here. 
We want to give him a taste of a 
Western Christmas. Send him out ! " 

With a low cry Georgie stepped 
back and blew out the light. Instantly 
a shout of drunken derision went up 
and guns were hilariously discharged, 
while the cries of ''Send him out, 
Dude!" were redoubled. 

The moon struck a shaft of light 
across Georgie's pleading face. Jo 
found her hands and drew her to him. 
" Georgie, is there someone in par- 
ticular here who ?" 

"No — oh, no!" she interrupted in 
breathless vehemence. 

Without further words he released 
her and swiftly relighted the lamp. 
Then he stepped to the door and drew 
back the bolt. 

"Jo, Jo," came in a sharp, fear- 
smitten whisper behind him, but he 
was out. 

Bareheaded, cool, collected, he stood 
in front of the door and held it shut 
with one hand regardless of the at- 
tempts to open it from within. He 
faced a dozen armed men suddenly 
sobered by the audacity of his appear- 
ing. 

"Well, men," came his calm, slow 
voice, "what do you want of me?" 

There ensued a silence. What did 
they want? They would have known 
had they been obliged to drag him 
from some hiding-place, pale and trem- 
bling, but what did they want of a 
man who faced them as coolly as though 
they wore Christmas toy pistols ? 

" We want to know what you're doin' 
here?" a gruff voice finally inquired. 

Oh, yes! That was really what they 
would like to know. A dozen more 
inquiries arose. "What 're you doin' 
here?" 

Jo's voice was even more deliberate 
than usual. "I'll tell you, men, and 



you are the first we've taken into our 
confidence. I am here to marry Miss 
Georgie Power." The pulls from the 
other side of the door suddenly ceased. 
" We will be married in Cody tomorrow 
evening, and after spending some time 
in Southern California with her father 
and mother, we are all going home to 
Pennsylvania." 

He paused. The silence became 
oppressive. Then quietly and with a 
note of finality, "Goodnight, friends, 
and a merry Christmas to you all." 

Another pause while Jo waited, his 
hand on the door latch. Suddenly he 
of the gruff voice turned on his heel 
and started across the canon followed 
by the others. Jo stood motionless 
until the last man had departed before 
he re-entered the shack. 

On her knees beside her mother's 
bed he found Georgie, her face buried 
in the blankets. Stooping silently, he 
laid a caressing hand on her head. In 
front of the bed sat Mr. Power, his hair 
disarranged by reason of contact with 
the slats of the bed, giving vent to dis- 
jointed, but delighted, remarks, which 
were overridden by his wife's steady 
tones. 

Mrs. Power was sitting bolt upright 
on the edge of the bed, her eyes shining 
and her voice ringing with a newly 
born strength. " Seems to me you two 
have kept this pretty still! But then, 
young folks don't consult their parents 
as they 1 did when I was a girl. But 
if you're going to take Georgie back 
to Pennsylvania — as long as she's all 
we've got — folks would think it queer 
if we didn't go along," a great relief 
spoke through her tone. " Georgie, 
hand me my clothes. We've got a sight 
of packing to do if we get off tomor- 
row. Pa, get my shoes down from 
that beam over the bed, and stop your 
talking. Jo, you and Georgie can go to 
California if you want to, but pa and I 
will go straight back home." 




Warren, in Boston Herald. 



Will She Avenge Her Cub? 




Destroy the Money Trust and All Trusts Will Die 
Gordon Nye, after Carl Browne. 



October, 1906 — 4 — 529 



Money and Taxation 



AN ANSWER AND A REPLY 



THE article in Watson's Maga- 
zine for March entitled, "The 
Philosophy of Money," accord- 
ing to my lights, is a time-honored 
stumbling-block in the path of finan- 
cial progress, whose ultimate effect is 
but to discourage the people from any 
hope of ever bettering their condition, 
since, not being their cause, it cannot be 
their cure. This view only makes con- 
fusion worse confounded. 

Did it never occur to you that if our 
whole monetary system were abandoned 
and exchange slips galore were floated 
over the land, slips having no intrinsic 
value themselves, but representing 
value and recognized as legal tender 
by the people (the Government), as the 
writer intimates in his quotation on 
the concurrent expression of Jefferson, 
Franklin and Paine, that "good paper 
money based on the credit of the people 
is the best money ever invented by 
man," did it never occur to you that 
if even such a system were adopted 
there might be some people who might 
be forced to accept less credit slips (or 
less money than their services entitled 
them to; or that they might have to pay 
for the chance to work or the necessi- 
ties of living (rent for a piece of land, 
freight, exchange, etc.), extortion which 
would overbalance their producing 
capacities? What is to prevent either 
or both of these possibilities? 

If a man receives less than he pro- 
duces, either in direct exchange or in 
credit, then he is in debt; deferred pay- 
ments are the result. The article says, 
"The cause is the inadequate volume 
of the debt-paying instrument." An 
absurdity! Can anyone be more lucid 
530 



on this point than Henry George? Let 
us get out his "Progress and Poverty" 
and polish up our political economy a 
bit. Do not let us fear to be a little 
radical. Sticking to old lines will never 
help us. We are in new times and they 
require new expedients. We have some 
big questions before us, and if we can- 
not see the future clearly, let us at least 
aim to understand the causes which 
make the present. 

The remedy does not lie in the cur- 
rency, but in the laws and the customs 
which admit and permit of labor com- 
petition, which tends to the lowest 
wages; land ownership, which eats all 
profits from laborer as well as from 
tenant; and the red tape and corrup- 
tion of the Government, which make 
vast monopoly possible, and thus 
create the tyrannizing power which 
profits on labor. These great princi- 
ples and many others, need our atten- 
tion. 

Equal rights to all is our theme; 
let us work upon it, and daring to de- 
mand our rights as free and equal citi- 
zens of our "Land of Liberty" (don't 
let this phrase become a farce), assert 
our manhood, and shake off this cring- 
ing and obsequious attitude of prostrat- 
ing ourselves in reverence before an 
unjust and anti-Christian power which 
we call wealth, and a perverted use of 
our Constitution which we call Law. 
The yoke will be put on so long as we 
bend our necks to it. Until every man 
in the nation is as interested in the 
welfare of his country as he is in that 
of his own home and fireside, I say we 
have and can have no United States, 
but conflicting states, and every fire- 



MONEY AND TAXATION 



531 



side will be robbed of its peace in 
proportionate degree. 

Henry W. Eustis. 



THE REPLY 

For the sake of argument, suppose 
we admit as just and correct Henry 
George's plan to take land values for 
public revenues. Suppose we look at 
it simply as a fiscal policy, a plan of 
taxation, without regard to its ultimate 
object: access to the land upon the 
basis of equality. Can it be put into 
successful operation without regard to 
our money system? I do not so be- 
lieve. 

Whether we call it "ground rent," 
"unearned increment," or simply "land 
value," the thing Mr. George purposes 
taking for public revenues is an ideal, 
intangible thing. As such, it cannot be 
delivered to the taxing power. Some- 
thing else — an equivalent — a tangible, 
material thing must be delivered in- 
stead. 

Now, taxes may be paid "in kind," 
where the levy is made upon articles of 
wealth, as, for example, under the tith- 
ing system; but not so in the case of 
land values. The lot upon which 
stands the Flatiron Building has an 
ever-increasing value; yet but little in 
the nature of commodities is produced 
there; and of the services rendered, 
few would be of use to the Government, 
Federal, state or local, if payment "in 
kind" were the rule. 

Payment of taxes "in kind," being 
impracticable under our highly de- 
veloped system of division of labor, it 
becomes necessary for Government to 
designate some particular thing which 
all must deliver in payment of the 



"ground rent,": "unearned increment" 
or "land value" assessed against each. 
This thing is money. 

But public revenues consist in those 
services and commodities which are 
necessary, or considered necessary, in 
carrying on government. In the last 
analysis, public revenues do not con- 
sist of money — it is merely a simplified 
system of bookkeeping. The Presi- 
dent's services, horses and forage for 
the army, powder and big shot for the 
navy, timber and steel plate for the 
navy yard — these and the many other 
services and commodities are the real 
revenues. Were those who furnish 
them not reimbursed in some way 
they would be the real taxpayers. 

But they are reimbursed — and in 
the very thing which is designated as 
the only solvent of tax levies: money. 
And so the circuit is complete. And 
if it be "good paper money based on 
the credit of the people," as Jefferson, 
Franklin and Paine agreed, it is un- 
doubtedly "the best money ever in- 
vented by man," for the obvious reason 
that it gives no special privilege to the 
producer of any commodity whatso- 
ever — not even to the producer of 
silver and gold, as is the case under 
free coinage of these metals. 

Can Mr. Eustis apply the single tax 
without reference to the money sys- 
tem? If he can, we might admit his 
broad statement that "the remedy does 
not lie in the currency, but in the laws 
and the customs which admit and per- 
mit of labor competition, which tends 
to the lowest wages; land ownership, 
which eats all the profits from laborer 
as well as from tenant," etc. If he 
cannot do this, he has failed to score . 
C. Q. De France. 



Her Confession 



(^LADYS BEAUTIGIRL— I do not understand how Jack Rushington, crip- 
^- Jr pled as he is with rheumatism in his right shoulder, could have kissed 
you against your will ? 

Dolly Swift — My dear, a handsome fellow like Jack Rushington could have 
kissed me against my will with both hands tied behind his back ! 



THE DOCTOR 3 
JTORV 




B^ 



flR^rWi^-Rta^ror. 



CHAPTER X 



it 



LOOK here, Mr. Hotchkiss," 
I said, the next morning after 
breakfast, "I'm a little un- 
easy about the responsibility I've 
taken in this house. We can't go 
ahead with that operation without 
consulting some of Mr. St. John's 
people. Suppose he doesn't pull 
through." 

Hotchkiss stopped his nervous walk 
up and down the veranda, and 
frowned thoughtfully. 

"His only relative, besides myself, 
is his father's sister, and she has lived 
in Dresden for a dozen years. As far 
as responsibility goes, Harry seems to 
have taken the thing into his own 
hands. There's no one to consult that 
I know except his wife, and she is 
barred." 

"Miss Ellis," I suggested. 

"Georgia's a nice girl, a very nice 
girl, Dr. Pierce. I like her as well as I 
like any woman, which isn't as much 
as it ought to be, perhaps. But if you 
don't want to tell Harry's wife, don't 
tell her best friend. It would slip out 
some way. As for the operation, it's 
Harry's privilege to make a decision 
that means more to him than to any- 
one else." 

"I'll be glad when it's over," I said 
fervently. "With the best intentions 
in the world, the two sides of the family 
are deceiving each other ; Mrs. St. John's 
brother and cousin are ranged with her 
to conceal something from the other 
party, which seems to include, as you 
said the other day, an invalid, an — 
pardon me, I am quoting you — 'an 
532 



antediluvian fossil and a bit of a boy.' 
We seem bound to get the worst of it." 

Hotchkiss chuckled. 

"Has Harry ever mentioned again 
the man who visited the car the night 
you lay over on the sidetrack?" 

"Never," I said. "He has never 
referred to it, and he has never men- 
tioned the fact that he saw Georgia 
Ellis the same night, when she took 
something from one of Miss Martin's 
bottles." 

"For a good reason," he said as- 
suredly. "For the best of reasons. 
He never mentioned that visit because 
it never occurred." 

"You mean — ?" I gasped. 

"I mean," he replied enigmatically, 
"that Miss Martin is probably subject 
to nightmare." 

I had not thought of such a possible 
solution before — not the solution the 
little man's words suggested, but the 
implication in his voice. Was it pos- 
sible that Miss Martin had devised the 
story, with some object which I could 
not even surmise? And there was the 
incident of the box which I found in 
her bedroom. 

" I'll venture to say," went on Hotch- 
kiss, "that Harry has left her a tidy 
sum in his will." 

"Not only that, but he intends to 
double it." 

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "it's 
a very clever piece of work, and well 
carried out, but we'd better get rid of 
Miss Martin. If it was anyone but 
Harry, I would say let the thing go on 
until we could catch her red-handed. 
But I'm fond of Harry — he's a good 
boy — and we'd better dispense with 



THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



533 



the lady in the cap before she makes 
another error in his medicine." 

" But the other things," I objected — 
"the light in the tower, the shriek, and 
the man who came to the car that 
night? Even granting that Miss Mar- 
tin would commit a crime of that 
nature — which seems incredible — 
what do you make of these other 
things?" 

Hotchkiss had been watching a flat 
stone near the edge of the veranda, 
where on sunny days an agile slate- 
colored salamander was accustomed 
to sun himself. Now with stealthy 
steps he stole down, his soft felt hat in 
his hand; but in the instant of the 
hat's descent, the little lizard had dis- 
appeared, and with a grunt of disap- 
pointment its would-be captor turned 
and came back. 

"I would like to investigate the 
towers," he said, as if no interruption 
had occurred. " I heard Ellis and Miss 
Georgia arranging to go to Carson for 
some things, and Mrs. St. John is with 
her husband. By the way, I saw the 
clerk last night who filled your prescrip- 
tion, and he almost fell behind the 
counter when I told him I wanted to 
talk to him about the medicine he put 
up for the young lady from Laurel- 
crest. It seems Millard had been 
threatening him with the penitentiary. 
He declares that he filled your prescrip- 
tion exactly " 

"So he did," I interrupted. 

"And, moreover, that they haven't 
a pink box in the store. Therefore, 
whoever exchanged those boxes had 
brought the poison from the city, and 
only waited an opportunity to ad- 
minister the stuff." 

"But if it should have been Miss — 
the person you suggested, why the 
capsules? Why not any of the drugs 
she had with her — the strychnia, or the 
chloral ? ' ' 

I am afraid I fell in the estimation 
of Mr. Hotchkiss. He stopped poking 
with his pencil at a little bag of spider's 
eggs securely fastened in an angle of 
the wall, and turned to me sharply. 

"You have the popular conception 
of crime," he sneered. "Why use a 



piece of wood from the woodpile when 
you have a revolver in your pocket? 
Why ? Because any tramp could have 
used the wood, while the revolver at 
once incriminates you. The criminal 
worthy of the name avoids the obvious. 
Any member of the family could have 
made the exchange in the boxes — any 
drug-clerk be blamed for the error 
Without such a possibility, the blame 
would have fallen on the nurse at 
once." 

"But she raised the alarm." 

"For one of two reasons — remorse, 
which is unlikely, or fear, which is 
probable." 

It seemed plausible, and however un- 
pleasant the task might be, I felt that 
it was necessary to send Miss Martin 
away at once. With our lack of proof 
against her it would be impossible to 
give anything like the true reason, and 
after her assiduous attention it was 
most difficult to trump up an excuse 
of any kind. 

A groom drove up with the post-bag, 
and Hotchkiss sorted out the mail. 
"Four for Miss Georgia, mostly mas- 
culine writing," he said, "although m 
these days when women use stub pens 
and spread all over the sheet, and men 
use fountain pens and write small for 
fear the ink gives out, it's confusing, 
sometimes. Here's a letter — two — for 
you, and one for somebody with a 
name between a cough and a sneeze. 
George, take this back to the house- 
keeper — it's probably for that Polish 
housemaid. And a telegram for me." 

One of my letters was from Franklin, 
saying that there was a vacancy on the 
visiting staff, and I was being spoken 
of for the position. I don't mind say- 
ing I felt a trifle set up about it. 
There were a good many older men 
than I who would have given up al- 
most everything but their hope of sal- 
vation for a position on the staff there. 
The other letter was from Jamieson. 
In small, cramped writing he ac- 
knowledged receipt of my letter, and 
begged to say that he saw no reason 
to change his opinion of Mr. St. John's 
case. Also, that he regretted that a 
bad attack of gout had convinced him 



534 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



that he would be better for a rest, and 
he would be at Wiesbaden about the 
tenth. 

So my letter had gone — after all! 
And the unpleasant duty of telling Dr. 
Jamieson that his patient had decided 
to make a change in physicians was 
now no longer needful. It was one 
thankless task unnecessary. 

"Fifty-three," said Hotchkiss 
thoughtfully. "I had no idea pink 
boxes were so popular with the drug 
trade." 

"Fifty-three what?" I asked. 

"Fifty-three drug-stores in the city 
where they sell powders and capsules 
in pink boxes," he said disgustedly. 
"I hope there's a difference in shade, 
anyhow. You'll have to get that box 
for me, Pierce." 

I agreed to make the attempt, and 
with the prospect before me of a stormy 
interview with Miss Martin, I went into 
the house. 

At the foot of the big staircase I met 
Georgia Ellis. She was drawing off her 
gloves, and her face was flushed and 
troubled. 

"Are you not going for your drive?" 
I asked, as she drew out the gold pins 
and took off her hat. 

" I have decided not to go," she said. 
" I — I have a headache." 

I thought she avoided my gaze, 
and it dawned on me, all at once, that 
she, like Mrs. St. John, was looking thin 
and worn. With a sudden impulse I 
held out my hand. 

"Won't you let me help you?" I 
asked. "It's — it's more than I can 
stand to have you in trouble, and not 
be able to do anything." 

She put her hand in mine, and it lay 
there for a moment. I wanted with 
all my heart to stoop and kiss the small 
fingers, but as if she divined my 
thoughts she drew it away quickly. 

"I won't force a confidence," I said. 
"You have said it is not yours to give. 
But if I can do anything " 

"If I could trust anyone, I could 
trust you." 

"Come out on the stone bridge," 
I suggested. "The air will help your 
headache, and I need an adviser." 



She came willingly enough, as if it 
was a new and pleasurable thing to 
have someone to take the initiative. 
We went slowly under the trees, where 
the lawns were covered with fallen 
leaves and the borders, save where the 
chrysanthemums glowed near the shel- 
ter of the hedges, were bare and brown. 

"I am always sad in the autumn," 
she said. "The trees are burying 
their children, and the poor old world 
looks so shabby and tired." 

"It is time for Grandmother Nature 
to sit by the chimney," I said. "She 
has reared a large family this summer." 

We walked on in silence to the 
bridge. Below, the little river clat- 
tered and splashed; the nasturtiums 
along the rail had been nipped by the 
frost, and hung their flaunting yellow 
heads. Georgia rested her arms on the 
cold stone, and drew a long breath. 

" I am going away," she said slowly. 
"I'm going back home, Dr. Pierce, 
back to Kentucky." 

I was silent with sheer surprise. 

"The worst of it is," she went on 
dully, "that I ought not to go; that I 
ought to stay here. But I cannot, I 
cannot! " 

"Not soon?" I asked, my voice 
sounding strange and unnatural to my 
ears. She was going — going out of my 
life, when she had barely entered it! I 
would never see her again — never see 
that proudly uptilted chin, and the 
deep eyes with the black lashes. I 
squared my shoulders and looked 
across to where the greens of the moun- 
tains were beginning to show splotches 
of red and yellow. 

"Very soon," she said sadly. "I 
am running away from something I 
ought to do, something I have given 
my word to do — and that is beyond my 
strength. I am deserting," she said, 
with a forced laugh. "Did you say 
you needed an adviser?" 

"Yes, I need an adviser, I would 
like to have a friend, too," I hazarded. 
She made a little impatient gesture 
and I hurried on. 

" I am going to make a change, Miss 
Ellis. Miss Martin will leave this 
evening, and I want you to suggest a 






THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



535 



substitute, if either you or Mrs. St. 
John has a nurse you would care to 
employ. She should be a responsible 
woman — not a girl, and " 

"Miss Martin going?" Her aston- 
ishment was almost dismay. 

"It is necessary," I said doggedly. 
"While I prefer to give her the benefit 
of the doubt, there were some peculiar 
circumstances connected with the error 
in medicines the other night. For one 
thing, the prescription was correctly 
filled at the pharmacy in Carson — the 
proper box turned up later, when the 
pink box with the poison capsules dis- 
appeared. Then, while looking for 
St. John's symptom chart in Miss Mar- 
tin's room, I came across the pink box, 
empty." 

She still leaned over the balustrade, 
her eyes fixed on the changing blues 
and whites of the sky reflected in the 
water below. But her fingers, which 
had been nervously tapping the edge of 
the flower-boxes, stopped suddenly, 
and her face was frozen and set. 

"And one — might have — put the 
box in her room," she stammered, when 
the silence became oppressive. 

"Not everyone would have a mo- 
tive. Miss Martin is poor and middle- 
aged; she has thought, perhaps, that 
he would not live long " 

"Do you think that? " she flashed at 
me. 

"And she knows," I went on, ignor- 
ing the interruption, "that he has left 
her a certain amount of money in his 
will. You see we have even a motive." 

"A motive that would apply to me 
also," she said bitterly. " I am a bene- 
ficiary, to a certain extent, in Harry's 
will. Why don't you suspect me ? " 

" I would as soon suspect my 
mother," I said fervently. 

She stood up then and, turning 
around, looked straight in my eyes. 

"Nevertheless," she said, and the 
world seemed to shatter and fall to 
pieces under my feet. "Nevertheless, 
Dr. Pierce, you must not send Miss 
Martin away. The error — it was an 
error — was mine! I gave you the pink 
box instead of the yellow one ! ' ' 

She moved quickly across the bridge 



then, and I followed her. At the 
end she paused again. "Don't come 
with me," she said half-hysterically. 
"Don't ask me what I was doing with 
the other box — don't ask me anything. 
But for heaven's sake don't go away, 
doctor; whatever happens, don't leave 
these unfortunate people alone." 

"But you are deserting," I said. 
" If I promise to stay, will you ? " 

" I cannot! " she shuddered. 

"Tell me something," I pleaded. 
"Let me help you, as I wanted to be- 
fore. The secret is safe with me. 
Wouldn't it be better to let me know it, 
whatever it is, than to have me going 
blindly along, stumbling over things I 
cannot understand, and not knowing 
whom to trust or distrust?" 

"I cannot tell you," she repeated, 
"but if you will promise to stay, I will 
stay, too. I — I'm not a coward, what- 
ever you think me." 

"I think you everything that is 
good," I said gravely, "and I want yo;i 
to know that whatever in the world you 
ask me to do I will do it, if the doing is 
possible." 

"You are very good," she said, with 
a faint smile. 

Then she left me, with my heart 
jumping like a triphammer, and the 
glow of her smile tingling all over me. 



CHAPTER XI 

The following day was Sunday. St. 
John had slept fairly well, and had been 
taken in a wheeled-chair to the glass- 
inclosed veranda which opened from 
his dressing-room. From here he com- 
manded a view of the drive, as it swept 
around toward the stables, and I found 
him amusing himself by watching the 
horses. The coachman, dressed in 
livery to drive the ladies to church, was 
supervising the showing off of the 
horses below their owner's window. 
Grooms and stable-boys were running 
around, leading stocky little cobs and 
slim, deep-chested hunters, while now 
and then a pair of shining carriage 
horses, stepping together, their heads 
proudly up, went sedately down the 



536 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



drive and back again. It was a sight 
to make a man's eyes sparkle, to watch 
that procession of beautiful horses, the 
younger ones frisking in the frosty 
morning air, the older ones moving 
with dignity, their muscles leaping into 
play under their polished skins. 

St. John turned to me with shining 
eyes. "They've been my best friends," 
he said. " Next to my wife, almost my 
only friends." 

We were both silent, watching the 
parade below. Finally the grooms led 
away the last horses, and the drive was 
deserted. St. John turned to me 
impulsively. 

" You're keeping something from me, 
Pierce ; I see a change in you. You're 
not sleeping, for one thing, and I'll ven- 
ture you're not eating. What's the 
trouble ? ' ' 

"There's nothing wrong with me," I 
said, trying to look unconcerned. " If 
I'm looking out of sorts, it's probably 
because I have been hunting imaginary 
troubles, and, not having your powers 
of imagination, I can't find them." 

"You medical men make a specialty 
of covering a non-committal answer 
with a smother of words. Look here, 
Pierce, you were going to help me in 
this thing, and you are not doing it. 
You're trying to keep things from me, 
with a mistaken idea of shielding me, 
and instead, I am worrying more over 
the things I conjure up than I should 
over realities. Haven't you learned 
anything?" 

I had foreseen this moment, when I 
gave my promise of secrecy about 
Ellis; I had feared it ever since, but 
now that it had come I was entirely 
unprepared. 

" I am convinced there is a mystery," 
I said at last desperately, "but it 
seems to concern Georgia Ellis as 
much, or even more than your wife. I 
imagine that, when we have sifted the 
thing down, we will find less cause for 
anxiety than we think." 

"You have learned nothing more 
about the man who visited the car that 
night?" 

"Nothing," I answered truthfully 
enough, for while I might surmise that 



the man was Ellis, I had no absolute 
proof of the fact. 

"There's something else, Pierce; 
if ever you run across a fellow prowling 
around the place here — a tall man, 
dark-eyed and sallow — I want you to 
let me know at once. It's unlikely, 
but it might happen, and in such a 
case I must know at once. If you 
can't come, send a message." 

"A tall man, sallow and dark-eyed," 
I repeated mechanically. 

"Yes — you won't find many 
strangers around here, and he's slightly 
stooped, so you will know him easily." 

It was Ellis, beyond doubt. Dis- 
simulation had always been hard for 
me, and now I found myself stammer- 
ing like a schoolboy. 

" But why — what — why should he 
prowl around here?" I asked. 

St. John twisted himself in his chair 
until he could face me squarely. 

"I suppose," he said slowly, "that 
every family has some sort of skeleton 
hanging away; it happens that we 
have one. It is not a particularly 
grim affair, but it is a thing I am not 
at liberty to mention. I can tell you, 
however, that the man I have de- 
scribed is my wife's brother, and the 
fiance of Georgia Ellis." 

St. John's pale face seemed to grow 
blurred and indistinct against its pil- 
lows. Then I pulled myself together 
and managed to find an excuse for 
leaving the room. 

The fiance of Georgia Ellis! She 
loved him, then. She would marry 
him some day, and they would go 
away together, while — I stumbled to 
my room and threw myself into a chair. 
Well, it was all over; what use was am- 
bition now, or hard work? I didn't 
want to succeed; I didn't want any- 
thing — but the girl I loved, and who 
belonged to another man. I sat there 
for an hour probably, in that condition 
between rage and black despair which 
is a man's substitute for tears. I 
heard the carriage start, taking the 
ladies to church, and watched Ellis go 
off for one of the long walks he took 
almost daily. I looked after him with 
a jealousy not unmixed with con- 



THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



637 



tempt. It was a blow to my self- 
esteem that I was defeated by so sorry 
a rival, for it seemed to me a feeble and 
almost shameful thing to hide, as he 
was doing, behind the petticoats of two 
women, living on the bounty of a man 
who despised him, and trading on the 
sympathies of the women who loved 
him. I gritted my teeth at the 
thought; I had even some wild idea 
of going down to his native state and 
hunting up the strange "politics," 
even in that country of political feuds, 
that could compel a man to hide in the 
mountains of Maine. But my hands 
were tied. St. John relied on me, and 
Friday would see either the beginning 
of a new lease of life for him or the 
end of everything. 

In the midst of a reverie that was 
becoming painful Hotchkiss knocked 
at the door and came in. He was 
plainly excited, and he went directly 
to the window and watched Ellis as he 
tramped along a footpath which led 
toward the hills. 

"Keeps out of sight of the west 
windows, doesn't he?" he chuckled. 

I grunted some sort of a reply. 
Levity seemed out of place that morn- 
ing, even levity as mild as that of 
Hotchkiss. 

"It might be a good opportunity," 
he said, wheeling around suddenly, 
"to investigate the tower room this 
morning?" 

I was willing, but not enthusiastic; 
the things I did know had faded 
into insignificance beside the one appall- 
ing fact that I did not know. How- 
ever, anything was better than in- 
action, so I got up and drew a long 
breath. 

" I suppose it's the best time," I said 
without enthusiasm. " Have you the 
keys?" 

"I have some skeleton keys," he 
said. "We can get upstairs, always 
providing that there are no bolts." 

"Bolts?" I asked curiously. "Why 
bolts, which would have to be pushed 
from the other side?" 

Hotchkiss sat down then, and 
pulled out his little notebook, turning 
over the pages rapidly. 



"Now," he said, "let's go over this 
thing coolly. In the first place, we will 
grant these girls a secret, which they 
are doing their best to hide. They 
didn't want to come here, for one 
thing. Why ? Not because Ellis was 
here, for he is the brother of one 
and the cousin of the other. If he was 
hiding here, alone, they would be 
anxious to be with him. Well, in 
spite of all they can do, St. John insists 
on coming, and comes. The night 
the car lies over at the sidetrack 
Ellis comes down to consult with his 
sister. She has telegraphed him that 
they are coming, and it is necessary 
to take additional steps to guard this — 
this secret. Now — the family arrives 
and all goes well. It is easy to hide 
things from a sick man, and you and 
I and the nurse are told some cock- 
and-bull story which we swallow as a 
hen does a caterpillar. But there's 
a hitch some place. The secret, so 
well concealed, has a voice, and the 
evening of the day you arrive there's 
a shriek from the tower room over- 
head. There's been trouble of some 
sort ; the three conspirators hurry to 
the tower room and pacify the secret. 
Georgia hears you downstairs, and 
being the bravest of the three— Ellis 
has no nerves — she undertakes to go 
_down and throw you off the scent. 
In some way Mrs. St. John's arm has 
been cut and the blood is on Georgia's 
sleeve. She tells you a brave little 
lie about cutting her arm with a paper- 
knife — and you believe it." 

I had been growing more and more 
excited as he went on. Now, I 
seemed to see the whole situation in a 
glance. 

"Then there's a fourth person!" I 
exclaimed. "Someone whom it is 
necessary to confine up there, and who 
may have escaped and " 

" Not too fast," he cautioned. "It's 
probable that there is a fourth to the 
trio who are, as you said before, banded 
together against St. John, you and my- 
self. And I'm not prepared to say that 
this fourth person may not have been 
responsible for the attempted murder 
of St. John. But Georgia's attempt 



338 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



to take the responsibility would look 
like it." 

"Then there's only one solution," I 
said eagerly. " The man , whoever it is, 
who is shut in the tower room is a ma- 
niac. Nothing else would explain that 
inhuman shriek and the murderous im- 
pulse. Great heavens! what a risk 
for the women to be running. Why, 
it must have been an attack of some 
sort that injured Mrs. St. John's 
arm." 

"There's another thing that I have 
not yet mentioned," he went on, again 
consulting his notebook. " The night 
your friend Dr. Carter came up — last 
Friday, I believe — you will remember 
that I arranged to find him some sort 
of a luncheon." 

"Yes. Go on," I said impatiently. 

"Well, I went back as quietly as I 
could to Saunders's pantry, and as I 
pushed open the swinging-door I 
almost struck Mrs. St. John. The 
light was on, but she seemed to have had 
her hand on the switch button, and, as 
I opened the door, she turned it out. 
But she was not quite quick enough, 
for I had time to see a tray in her hand. 
She passed me with some little remark, 
and went upstairs. Now, you know 
that in itself is proof of a secret with 
an appetite. Had she herself wanted 
anything to eat she'd have sent that 
French maid of hers down to get it. 
It's the first time I have ever known 
of her going near the kitchen." 

I began to have some scruples about 
investigating the upper rooms. What 
affair of ours was it to attempt the 
discovery of a secret that these people 
were guarding so carefully? Suppose 
we did discover a prisoner in the upper 
story, what then? Could I walk down 
and say to the women that I had dis- 
covered their precious secret — that I 
had obtained by force the confidence 
they refused to give me ? 

Hotchkiss, however, had no scruples. 

"It is our affair," he said firmly. 
" It is a duty to save those girls from 
a possibility of harm, and besides, no 
matter of sentiment should keep a 
murderous lunatic from an asylum; St. 
John has had one experience: you or I 



may be the next. They are crafty, 
these insane." 

Ellis had long disappeared from 
view, and time was passing. With 
this new view of the case, that Georgia 
might be in danger, I was eager for the 
search. Hotchkiss got up and sorted 
over his skeleton keys. 

"This," he said, "will open the stair- 
case in this wing. It's not likely we 
will get much further, but we'll do 
what we can. Have you a revolver?" 

I had, a 38-calibre Colt, and I stuck 
it in my pocket. Then we went 
quietly out and along the corridor. 
There was a Sunday calm all over 
the house. The white-capped house- 
maids, who were usually polishing 
the floors and flourishing dusters along 
the halls, had disappeared. No one 
saw us as we fitted the key into the 
white door of the staircase and turned 
it. 

The door opened at once. Above 
us stretched the stairs, gleaming and 
bare, while a stained-glass window at 
the head threw red and blue and orange 
shadows on the white walls. It was 
rather cheerful than otherwise — there 
were no dark, shadowy corners with 
possibilities lurking in them; no cob- 
webs, no barred windows, no hollow 
groans. On the contrary, as we 
reached the top of the flight and turned 
to look around us, we found a scene very 
similar to the one we had left. There 
were the same long, broad corridors 
with shining floors and bright rugs; 
there was the same beautiful wood- 
work, the same vista of doors. The 
ceilings were lower, possibly — the rugs 
less costly, but the impression of 
cheeriness and sunlight was the same. 

"I forgot to say," Hotchkiss said in 
a low tone, "that I learned from Harry 
that the rooms over yours are the hos- 
pital suite. The architect provided 
an isolation of rooms in case of con- 
tagious disease. It includes a bed- 
room, dressing-room, bathroom and 
the tower alcove. There is a dumb- 
waiter, too, leading to the basement." 

I nodded, and we went together 
toward the closed door which led from 
the dressing-room into the hall. It 



THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



539 



was locked, as was the door next, 
which led from the bathroom. Hotch- 
kiss fumbled nervously with the keys, 
and his thin lips were quivering with 
suppressed excitement. He reminded 
me irresistibly of a fox-terrier who has 
chased a rat to his hole, and stands 
guard there, every muscle tense, and 
its stub of a tail quivering with excite- 
ment. 

Finally I took the keys, and, after a 
few minutes' cautious manipulation, I 
succeeded in unlocking the dressing- 
room door. I scarcely care to repeat 
my sensations as I opened it, inch by 
inch, and looked in. I expected a 
rush, a shriek, perhaps a blow — any- 
thing but the silence and emptiness 
that greeted us. 

I pushed the door entirely open be- 
fore we went into the room, and our 
progress was slow and extremely cau- 
tious. A minute sufficed to show the 
emptiness of the dressing-room. Be- 
yond its few pieces of furniture, a 
shaving stand, a chiffonier and a large 
wardrobe, it contained nothing but a 
chair or two. The bathroom was also 
empty. Here Hotchkiss pointed 
triumphantly to signs of recent oc- 
cupancy; the soap in the nickel soap 
stand was soft and partly used, while a 
half-dozen towels lay round, incon- 
trovertible evidence that the neat house- 
maids of the rest of the house had no 
access here. 

The door from the dressing-room 
into the bedroom was not locked and 
here we exercised the greatest caution. 
If our theory held, the object of our 
search must be either in that room or 
in the tower alcove which opened from 
it. I am rather ashamed to confess 
that I was covered with cold perspira- 
tion when I put my hand on the knob 
of the door to open it. The pressure 
of the Colt in my pocket was comfort- 
ing. I threw the door open and looked 
in. The bedroom, like the others, 
was empty. 

Hotchkiss gave a comprehensive 
glance round — at the tumbled bed, at 
the stand nearby with a water bottle 
half full of water, and a glass, then he 
pointed to the corner. 



There, as in the rooms below, por- 
tieres hung over the entrance to the 
tower alcove. Convinced that the 
mystery, secret, whatever it might be 
called, lay beyond the curtains, I sum- 
moned my courage — it's a question 
of moral, not physical courage when 
you are about to face the unknown — 
and drew the curtains aside. 

We faced, not the circular alcove 
with small, high windows that we had 
expected to find, but instead a heavy 
door, closed and locked. 

Hotchkiss stooped down and ex- 
amined the fastening. It was a square 
bronze plate, very heavy and without 
a keyhole, while a very small knob, 
perhaps an inch and a half across, 
proved its nature. Hotchkiss turned 
it once and listened to the click. With 
all my experience in such matters, I 
knew it to be a combination lock. The 
room in the tower was as safe from 
intrusion as a banking vault, and the 
mystery was as far from solution as 
ever. 

There was no sound from beyond 
the heavy door, and we tiptoed out 
and locked the door behind us. Then 
we went softly down the stairs again 
and into my apartments below. 

For an hour we discussed the various 
aspects of the case. Whatever doubt 
there might have been before, there 
seemed room for none now. There 
was a prisoner in the tower room, a 
prisoner who was restrained by force; 
more than that we knew nothing. And 
as we talked we realized that there 
were some things still unexplained. 
How had the prisoner succeeded in 
obtaining the poison, and how suc- 
ceeded in exchanging the pink for the 
yellow box? 



CHAPTER XII 

Ellis came back late in the after- 
noon. I chanced to meet him on the 
stairs, and was shocked by the change 
in his appearance. I had little reason 
to like him, but his ghastly face 
aroused my professional interest. 

"What's wrong, Ellis?" I asked as 



540 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



he tried to brush past me. "Are you 
ill, or have you had bad news?" 

"It's a combination of both," he 
said, avoiding my eyes, "only I'm not 
ill; I'm simply worn out." 

I let him pass me then, and went on 
down the stairs, but was certain I 
heard him go to the locked staircase, 
and later I had proof of it.* He did not 
appear at dinner, and when I men- 
tioned his altered appearance I inter- 
cepted a quick exchange of glances 
between Georgia Ellis and her cousin — 
glances full of consternation and dis- 
may. If Hotchkiss noticed anything, 
he did not say. He went on at length 
with the life history of a small, green 
snake that he had once hatched in a 
chicken incubator, and which he de- 
clared had learned to beg for food, and 
dinner passed off rather well. 

Hotchkiss and I took our afternoon 
smoke in the billiard-room, he, in his 
characteristic fashion, pacing up and 
down with his hands behind him, while 
I aimlessly knocked the balls about and 
chewed at the end of my unlighted 
cigar. After a while I stopped, and 
going over to the fireplace, broached the 
subject that was never out of my mine 1 . 

"I have just learned," I said, with 
what I considered a fine assumption 
of indifference, "that Miss Georgia is 
engaged to Ellis. Did you know it?" 

"Bless my soul, no!" he said. 
"Why, I — you will excuse an old man, 
Pierce, and it's none of my business, 
but I had an idea that you and Georgia 
had fixed things up between you." 

"Well, you were wrong," I said 
gruffly. Then, half-ashamed of my 
humor, I went on more civilly: "For 
one thing, I'm not an eligible in any 
sense ; I've nothing but my profession, 
no money " 

" Neither has he," interrupted Hotch- 
kiss, "and no profession, either. Lives 
on his sister's bounty. I'll be blessed if 
I can understand women." 

"He's a handsome devil, too," I went 
on, touching on that delicate topic of 
appearance which we all profess to 
scorn. Hotchkiss started to interrupt 
me again, but I hurried on. "Any- 
how, it isn't a question of either money 



or looks ; the girl loves him. You can't 
deny it," I challenged him. "Look 
how often they are together ; to see one 
is to see the other. They drive, walk, 
read " 

" Nonsense," said Hotchkiss. " They 
have the tie of a common interest, a 
common secret — that's all. I tell you 
if I was a young fellow and in love, I 
wouldn't want to see contempt in the 
girl's eyes, and there's contempt there, 
most of the time. ' ' 

The door into the hall opened to ad- 
mit Saunders and closed behind him. 
He was looking at Hotchkiss and I 
noticed that his face was as white as 
his spotless shirt-front. 

"We've heard them again, sir," he 
said, half-leaning against the door. 
" They're worse than usual, and the boy 
that minds the furnaces has fainted 
away, sir." 

Hotchkiss threw away the end of his 
stogie — he smoked Pittsburg stogies, 
and the very smell made my hair rise — 
and started for the door. 

"Come on, Pierce," he called over 
his shoulder. "We are going settle the 
Laurelcrest ghost." 

He was manifestly excited. There 
was a new erectness in his narrow 
shoulders, a triumphant inflection to 
his voice, and with the prospect of ac- 
tion my spirits lightened. Saunders 
led the way to the back of the house, 
and we followed close on his heels. 
Through the breakfast- room, past the 
servants' dining-room, and back to the 
big tiled kitchen, where a dozen of the 
house servants were gathered in a sub- 
dued, whispering crowd. Every light 
was turned on — the room was as bright 
as daylight, and a copper kettle 
hummed cheerfully on the big range 
which filled one side of the room. But 
the atmosphere was tense with horror, 
and there was fear, the awful, wide- 
eyed fear of the unknown, on every face. 

On the floor in the centre of the room 
lay the grimy figure of the furnace boy, 
a lad of about nineteen, now partly 
conscious, but refusing to get up, and 
lying crouched there in abject terror. 
I bent over him and felt his pulse, 
which was galloping furiously. 



THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



541 



"He's been that way since he came 
up," said the cook, a slim little woman. 
" He just fell through that door there 
and rolled over on the floor. Once be- 
fore he came up that way, yelling that 
there were ghosts in the cellar, and I 
ain't been down there since." 

The crowd huddled closer together, 
and one of the housemaids began to 
whimper. Hotchkiss went to the door 
the cook indicated, and slipped back 
the bolt. Quick as thought Saun- 
ders was before him, his hand on the 
knob. 

"For God's sake, don't go down, 
Mr. Hotchkiss! " he said shakenly. 
"There's something wrong, sir. The 
house is haunted; the doctor can tell 
you about the shriek we heard one 
night, and there's something moaning 
now, in the cellar, under the east wing." 

"I hope there is," said Hotchkiss 
cheerfully. "Come on, Pierce. Is it 
lighted down there, Saunders? " 

Saunders muttered something which 
we construed as yes, and throwing open 
the door, Hotchkiss was about to lead 
the way down. 

I stepped ahead of him, however, 
with the feeling that however ghostly 
the sounds might be, there was a chance 
that physical strength would be needed, 
and that my bulk was better fitted to 
meet a sudden onslaught than Hotch- 
kiss's slender frame. Hotchkiss turned 
at the door to the open-eyed crowd be- 
hind us. 

"Not a word of this," he said threat- 
eningly. " Get about your business, all 
of you. Turn out some of these lights 
and go back to your rooms — play cards, 
anything — say your prayers if you 
want to, but not a word of this up- 
stairs. Saunders, will you come down, 
or will you wait here ? " 

Saunders hesitated between Hotch- 
kiss 's scornful smile and the shadows 
of the basement stairs. Then he 
gulped once or twice. 

"I think I'll not go, Mr. Hotchkiss," 
he said weakly; "my nerves are bad, 
and I'd be no use, sir." 

We started down alone, then, and 
smiled as we reached the foot of the 
stairs to hear the door softly closed 



behind us. Cut off suddenly from even 
the feeble support of the kitchen, the 
situation was decidedly eerie. The 
cellars dimly lighted, white -walled, 
stretched around us in a decreasing 
perspective of lights and black shadows ; 
our steps echoed hollowly on the cement 
flooring, and. from some place in the 
distance came the muffled whir of the 
machinery in the engine-room. We 
went there first, skirting around the 
dynamos which lighted the house, 
peering back of the big engine which 
chilled the refrigerating-room , and 
then, beyond, to where the big force 
pump, gleaming with brass and drip- 
ping, with oil, sent water up through the 
house. There was no one around. 
The old Scotchman who tended the 
engines was upstairs with the rest 
of the terrified household, and we 
went on alone, through the laun- 
dry and the big drying - rooms ; 
through the big empty space re- 
served for the unbuilt swimming pool, 
and into the unused places beyond, 
where our footsteps sounded hollow in 
the emptiness and where only an oc- 
casional light here and there accen- 
tuated the shadows. We were in the 
room under the east wing, and were 
about to give up and go back, when we 
heard a sound. It was inarticulate 
at first, growing louder gradually, un- 
til it sounded like a muffled human 
voice, and ending with a wail that 
faded slowly, slowly into a quivering 
silence, and left our nerves throbbing 
with its acute anguish. 

' ' Great heavens ! " I gasped. ' ' Where 
was that?" 

Hotchkiss pulled himself together 
with an effort, and stared around him. 
The sound had been followed by a 
silence which to our strained ears was 
pregnant with possibilities. The 
rhythmic beat of the engines sounded 
faintly in the distance, but around us 
was gloom and quiet, and I could hear 
the blood rushing through my ear 
drums. 

"There's somebody hiding around 
here," said Hotchkiss, his voice sound- 
ing sepulchral in the silence. "Where 
there's a voice there's a throat to pro- 



542 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



duce it, that's certain." He b'igan to 
move cautiously around the walls and 
I followed him. Together we ex- 
amined every corner without result. 
Then Hotchkiss stopped and looked 
round. 

"This must be under the hall," he 
said thoughtfully, . "and the dark 
corner there is beneath the tower. 
By Jove," excitedly, "I know the 
whole thing now. Have you matches ?" 

I had half a dozen or so, and with the 
aid of one, carefully shielded with his 
hand, we groped our way into the 
gloomy recess he had pointed out. It 
was as he had surmised; the semi- 
circular wall showed that it lay be- 
neath the tower, and with his unoccu- 
pied hand Hotchkiss pointed to a 
small doorway in the stone. 

"The dumb-waiter to the hospital 
suite," he whispered. "Listen." 

The match flickered and want out, 
and as I fumbled for another a laugh 
issued from the partly open door. 
A horrible maniacal laugh that seemed 
to come from the obscurity around us, 
and that froze the blood in my veins. 
Then silence again. 

I think I should have run had not 
Hotchkiss found an electric lamp near 
and turned the switch. In the light 
that followed we were ready to face 
anything, and we waited expectantly, 
close by the door of the shaft, for a 
repetition of the sounds. But none 
came. After perhaps thirty minutes of 
tension I sat down on the cold floor and 
tried to make myself comfortable while 
Hotchkiss took out his notebook and 
made methodical entries. 

An hour went by, two hours, and not 
a sound from the tower room had come 
down the shaft. Hotchkiss had 
brought a chair from the engine-room 
and dozed comfortably, waking up now 
and then when his head dropped with 
a jerk, then dropping off again. I got 
stiff after a time, and tried walking up 
and down for a change, always, how- 
ever, with an eye and an ear for the 
little door in the wall. 

I thought over a good many things 
in that long vigil; of the difference be- 
tween myself as I had left the hospital 



a few days before, and the Carroll 
Pierce of the present, wildly in love 
with a girl who loved another man, 
conspiring against her for the discovery 
of a secret she was helping to guard, 
busying myself, in other words, with 
other people's affairs; not even entirely 
frank with St. John, who trusted me; 
and assisting in his deception of his 
wife as I assisted her in deceiving him. 
Truly it was not an enviable position, 
and with St. John's operation approach- 
ing and the discovery, which seemed 
imminent, of a murderous maniac 
in the tower room, I began to feel that 
the position was scarcely bearable. 

It was about midnight when Hotch- 
kiss roused himself and got up yawning. 

"Our friend has gone to sleep," he 
said, nodding toward the closed door. 
"I'm going upstairs to see if there's a 
light in the tower windows, and to get 
a book. Then you can doze and I'll 
take my turn at watching." 

I sank into his chair and watched 
his disappearing frame as he went 
toward the stairs, then, with my legs 
stretched out and my hands in my 
pockets, I went on with my usual re- 
flections. Suppose the operation was 
a success and St. John began to go 
around again ? What would become of 
Ellis? What would they all do with 
the prisoner in the tower room? 
What would I do if this unknown 
should attack and injure Georgia Ellis? 

A slight sound attracted my atten- 
tion. It was a scraping like the heel of 
a boot on a board, and at first I could 
not locate it. Then, all at once, I 
knew. It came from the shaft of the 
dumb-waiter, and even as the con- 
viction forced itself on me I saw the 
handle of the door turn and open 
about an inch. 

I raised in my chair and leaned for- 
ward, ready to spring. My heart 
seemed to have stopped and every 
nerve centered in one ominous object — 
that slowly opening door. And then 
the lights went out. Not gradually, 
but suddenly, leaving me in utter 
blackness, my eyes straining, my 
tongue dry, my hands clutched and 
tingling. There was perfect silence — 



THE DOCTOR'S STORY 



54; 



then a sudden shriek close by me. I 
think I shrieked, too. Then there was 
a rush, a wave of air as a body ran past 
me, a far-off moaning call, and 
silence. 

And I sat in that black darkness, 



unable to find my way out, with that 
awful shriek ringing in my ears, with 
flashes of light streaking the darkness 
to my overstrained eyes, while I 
shivered with the cold terror of the 
unknown. 




To h& Continued 




November 



BY FLORENCE A. JONES 



BARE boughs and stormy, wind-swept skies, 
A red trail blazed across the West — 
Sure promise when the daylight dies, 
Of snowflakes on an empty nest. 

Hung on the far horizon's rim, 

Above the distant wooded height, 
Just as the last red bar grows dim 

A red star gleams out on the night. 

Ah, heart, what tho' the day must die? 

And what bare boughs and empty nest, 
And what a gray November sky 

If one red star shine in the West ? 



A Reasonable Fee 



"T HAVE noticed, during my somewhat prolonged pilgrimage adown the cor- 
■*■ ridors of time," sarcastipessimistiruminatingly remarked the Old Codger, 
"that it is generally worth while to hear both sides of everything — except, of 
course, a bass-drum. F'rinstance, I was reading, the other night, about a clergy- 
man who rendered a bill for five hundred dollars for delivering a eulogy over the 
remains of a prominent citizen. I bucked and faunched quite a good deal in my 
righteous indignation, until I read onward and discovered that the late lamented 
had been a United States senator. Then I thought to myself that that was a 
little enough price for the laceration of the preacher's conscience." 




Portrait in Oils by an Old Master Maybe//, in Brooklyn Eagle. 

It is reported that Uncle Sam has been done in oil by Mr. Rockefeller. 
Burl, in Minneapolis Journal. 




.0 - ' 'JT 



,7/ 



■m» 




Man at the Window: " 'Scuse me, you'll have to go round to the back door.' 
Donahey, in Cleveland Plain Dealer. 



544 



An Attic Populist 

BY ERNEST HOLLENBECK 



ONCE more in the evolution of man 
is that Divine Tragedy, The 
Birth of Liberty, being enacted. 
This time Russia is the stage, her peo- 
ple the dramatic stars, the world a 
rapt spectator. May Liberty, child 
of the spirit of discontent, born in a 
nation's agony, christened with the 
sacrificial blood of martyrs, survive the 
dread ordeal! 

The history of great constitutional 
revolutions has not always been written 
thus in blood. Roll back the tide 
twenty-five centuries and we find the 
conditions of ancient Attica quite 
similar to those of Russia in the last 
century. By the beneficent genius of 
one man a constitutional reform was 
introduced whose power for good is the 
leaven of political freedom in this 
lumpish world. 

By the unwritten constitution of 
Attica, her people were divided in four 
tribes, each tribe tracing its lineage 
back to a common ancestral god. 
Emerging thus from the mists of 
legend, history finds the family as the 
unit of social, religious and political 
life. Families were united in gens, 
which were in turn combined in phra- 
tnes, thirty families in a gens, three 
gens to each phratry. 

These gens and phratries bound the 
people in social and religious ties, which 
found expression in ceremonial rites 
and social festivals that had their 
origin in the cradle of the race beyond 
the barriers of primal myths. 

Their early political organization 
comprised a union of heads of families 
in naukraries .which were combined 
into frittyes. Each naukrary levied 
and distributed public funds and fur- 
nished its quota of men and materials 

October, 1906 — 5 — 545 



for war. Half a century later this 
ancient constitution was subverted and 
Attica territorially divided into demes 
(from demos, people, country, from 
which we derive "democracy" and 
"democrat"), to which our townships 
are lineal descendants. The popular 
assemblages of Greece were the source 
of our township annual meetings. 

It will be seen this political organiza- 
tion of ancient Attica was for state pur- 
poses, while the union of homes and 
hearths in gens and phratries was for 
religious purposes in honor of a com- 
mon ancestral god ; for mutual aid and 
defense; for common burial rites and 
cemeteries; for rights of marriage, and 
for community of property in certain 
cases. Each family had its religious 
and funeral rites in which only the 
family'might participate. Festivals in 
honor of the gods were insistent, and 
religion was interwoven with their 
lives at all hours and on all occasions. 

In ancient days the tribes were ruled 
by kings whose names and deeds have 
well-nigh all perished from tradition. 
Then came arkons for life as chief 
rulers, succeeded by arkons for ten 
years, of whom there were seven. 
Then the number was increased to nine 
and the term of tenure limited to a 
year. These mighty political evolu- 
tions occurred during a century and a 
half of historical twilight, between the 
night of myth and the day dawn of 
Attic history, b.c. 683. A history 
written in red upon the spirits and 
intellects of the human race. 

Out of this chaos of war and rapine, 
gods and heroes, of men arrogating to 
themselves undue portions of the re- 
wards of life because of their divine 
ancestry, loom up the giant forms of 



540 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



capitalist and proletarian, distorted as 
by some mirage of history. The cap- 
italist is seen making the laws, enforc- 
ing the laws, executing the proletariat 
for petty crimes, selling him, his wife, 
his daughters, aye! and his sisters also, 
for his paltry debt. Selling him to 
direst slavery, his female kin to the 
most degrading servitude, and worse! 

The theory of the unwritten law was 
that lesser offenses deserved death, and 
no more severe penalty could be meted 
out to greater crimes. The six petty 
arkons sitting as courts of examination, 
or trial for petty misdeeds, and the 
three chief arkons sitting as courts of 
high jurisdiction, enforced laws and 
penalties with rigor, and even the 
supreme court, the Senate of the Areo- 
pagus, could enforce no less penalty for 
homicide of any degree than death or 
exile and confiscation. 

Under the laws of Draco, the first to 
be committed to writing, these harsh 
laws were to some extent modified. 
As men emerged from the larval stage 
of liberty, these social and political 
penalties became so intolerable that the 
poorer classes of the population muti- 
nied. 

The lands were mostly owned by the 
rich and farmed by the slave's, or by 
the poor on shares. Small landholders 
were almost universally oppressed by 
mortgages, the sign of which was a 
stone pillar on the land, inscribed with 
the amount and lender's name. Even 
the free laborers and artisans were 
rapidly falling into the clutches of the 
sharpers to be eventually sold as slaves 
with their families and immediate 
female relatives. 

These conditions paralleled those of 
France before the Revolution; of 
Russia today ; of the United States in 
the trust-conquering future. France 
baptized Liberty in bluest blood. 
Russia is in the throes. Will Russian 
freedom perish ere her birth? Will our 
Liberty die of the assassin's thrust? 
Perhaps the man for the hour will rise 
even as Solon rose for Attica. 

Solon, aristocrat of the most aris- 
tocratic Eupatrids, having acquired 
great prominence, was called upon to 



avert the common danger. Given sole 
power, he endeavored, honestly, to 
reform abuses instead of making him- 
self despot, as was hoped by the rich. 

The most urgent need was relief for 
the poor debtors. Solon at once can- 
celed all contracts in which the debtor 
had borrowed money on the security of 
his land or body. He provided funds 
to redeem the financial slaves from 
foreign bondage and bring these exiles 
home. He forever forbade the pledg- 
ing of the body of the debtor and the 
sale of citizens for debt. This gave 
great relief to the small debtors and 
may well be contrasted with the far- 
reaching and disastrous results of the 
decision of Chief Justice Marshall on 
the inviolability of contracts, as set 
forth in the Dartmouth College case 
(see "Monarchy Within the Republic," 
Watson's, July, August, September 
and October, 1905). 

Though this relieved the host of 
small debtors, it threw added burdens 
on the debtor class next higher by 
destroying their sources of revenue. 
To relieve these debtors he recoined 
silver and debased it so that 100 drach- 
mas contained no more silver than 73 
drachmas of the old coinage. 

In 1896 we heard the echoes of those 
old-time money monopolists shout- 
ing "Calamity Howler!" "Fifty-cent 
Dollar!" 

Fortunately there were no news- 
papers in those days to augment ill- 
will — only orators, and pre-incarnate 
Bourke Cockrans demagoging first on 
one side, then on the other, according 
to the pay accorded a soldier of for- 
tune. 

The debased coinage threw off 27 
per cent, of the burden and entailed 
that amount of loss on the class of 
ultimate and richest creditors, much 
to their discontent at first. Subse- 
quently, they rejoiced with the others, 
for prosperity came to all. 

This revolution was quite unlike 
that of our day in which the imme- 
morial silver standard was subverted 
by gold, in the interests of the creditor 
class and fixed incomes. But the re- 
sults are remarkably coincident, for. 



AN ATTIC POPULIST 



547 



as the debased coinage of Solon resulted 
in relief to debtors, so the intense 
activity in gold mining and production 
stimulated by the gold standard has 
resulted in an enormous outflow of 
gold, far surpassing the yield of both 
precious metals a decade ago. This 
enormous inflation of metallic currency 
has resulted in exactly the conditions 
feared by the gold advocates, if silver 
were not excluded from the mints. 
The price of money is cheapened, as 
shown in the rising cost of labor and the 
commodities of life by 50 per cent, in 
recent years. The fixed-income people 
are being enslaved by their sceptre of 
gold! And the vast golden veins and 
arteries of the Andes still unbled! It 
is a question of years only when high 
finance will demand closure of the 
world's mints to gold. Then you'll 
see the banker greenbacker with a 
paper standard and his hand in control 
of the press lever! 

Other " anarchist " measures of Solon 
were dividing the people into four 
classes in respect to property and in- 
come. The first class with incomes of 
500 drachmas or over; the second with 
300 to 500; the third with 200 to 300, 
and the fourth with less than 200 
drachmas income, by far the greatest 
numerically. The first three classes 
were subject to direct tax; the fourth 
only to indirect tax, of which duties on 
imports was chief. The first historical 
graduated income tax ! 

Under the Solonian constitution the 
arkons were elected by the fourth class 
from candidates belonging in the first 
class. They were liable to review and 
censure in the popular assembly of the 
fourth class after their term of office 
had expired. A feature that might 
well be introduced in our polity. Just 
imagine a mass meeting of New 
Yorkers sitting as a court of review on 
Depew and Piatt! Think of some of 
our M. C.'s defending their action in a 
popular assemblage acting and voting 
as a court! 

Solon constituted a preconsidering 
Senate of 400 to formulate measures 
to be considered in the popular as- 
ssmbly and with other powers. This 



probouleutic Senate and popular as- 
sembly is in fact the first recorded' ap- 
plication of the initiative, referendum 
and imperative mandate. 

Solon prohibited export of agricul- 
tural products and built up a home 
market by encouraging artisans and 
manufacturers. He regulated mar- 
riages and funerals, wills and descent of 
property. He was the first great 
emancipator, ranking with Lincoln, 
Alexander II of Russia, and Dom Pedro 
of Brazil. He forbade selling female 
relatives and punished offenses 
against the integrity of women. He 
extended the right of suffrage, pro- 
hibited slander and evil speech against 
the dead. He modified the rigor of 
exacting laws and severely denounced 
neutrality in civil strife. 

Individualism, inherent in the Greek 
race, received its highest development 
in Attica under Solon, its prophet- 
priest. 

Philosophic individualism is an ideal 
condition of society in which the in- 
dividual knows the right, thinks right, 
wills right, acts right for right's sake, 
fearing no punishment, hoping no re- 
ward. Obeying only the lawo of The 
Good, The Beautiful, The True. 

Democracy is a practical application 
of Individualism as modified by human 
ignorance, hopes, fears, passions and 
aspirations. Solon and the Attic con- 
stitution are but the day dawn of 
Democracy, for which Populism is but 
a synonym. 

The demands of Populism today are 
the voices of the past ringing down the 
corridors of time, so far do human 
efforts lag behind the footsteps of fleet- 
ing centuries. 

It may be news to many of that 
mighty host of millions who followed 
silver to defeat in our day that two 
thousand five hundred years ago a 
mighty campaign was fought along 
similar lines to a peaceful finish, and 
that even the rich and creditors came 
to admit its beneficent results. Yet so 
it was, and the result of the Solonian 
laws, canceled debts, free silver and 
27 per cent, debasement, greater power 
for the common people in elections 



548 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



and assemblies, resulted in peace, pros- 
perity and an upward march toward a 
grandeur in art, intellect, democracy 
and power. 

A volcanic eruption of human rights 
whose force was felt through the ages in 
Greece, Rome, Venice, Germany, Eng- 
land, America and France, wherever 
the classic literature and political 
philosophy of Greece was taught in 
school or cloister cell. 

The genius and probity of Solon have 
permeated all Occidental civilizations 
to this day, a power for right. 

Could one believe in the transmigra- 
tion and reincarnation of souls, it were 
easy to conceive a Rienzi, a Luther, a 



Cromwell or Pitt, a Danton, a Patrick 
Henry or Count Tolstoy , as some ancient 
Populist of the Solonian era, thunder- 
ing at the despotisms of wealth and 
power. One might even conceive a 
Watson, a Bryan, a Teller and a 
Stewart, fighting a losing battle for 
silver, as they fought a winning fight 
for silver in the long ago. Each and all 
giving freely of life, time, talent and 
strength to press the car of Freedom to 
its shining goal. 

Let us trust that Russia may clasp 
the ikon of hope and justice, not with 
crimsoned hands, and guided by some 
Solon of today, rise to realms of liberty 
among the morning stars! 



Life 

BY Z. S. HEMENWAY 



A STRIP of earth for thorn and flower growing, 
A glimpse of heav'n afar 
O'ercast by clouds with rainbow colors glowing; 
A night, a grave, a Star. 



Consolation 

<<T YEAHS 'em specify, fum time to time," ruminatingly remarked old Broth- 
-*- er Medlicott, with sage waggings of his nappy head, "dat yo' kin find 
a bright side to everything if yo' will only look keerful enough. And, uh- 
'zaminin' the prognostication fum dis point and de tudder, it 'pears to me like 
dar mought be suthin' to it. F'instance, now, sah, in de little matter of gwine 
to hell, if yo' has to go dar; for one thing, yo' don't need to be uh-skeered to 
death de whole time about bein' burnt out in de night, and den ag'in, nobody 
will keep uh-pickin' and uh-pesterin' at yo' to refawm yo' ways or yo' will sho'ly 
go down to de Bad Place, bein' as dar ain't no udder location, bless goodness, 
whuh yo' kin possibly backslide to and fall intuh — uh-kase, sah, yo' am right 
dar on de flat bottom and kain't go no deeper, no way yo' kin fix it! — nussah! " 



The Happy Family 

R SCRAPPINGTON — Well, it takes two to make a quarrel. 

Mrs. Scrappington — No such thing! If it wasn't for you there would 
never be any quarrels in this family. 



M 



A Great Human Principle 

BY 

CHARLES FORT 




A THREE-STORY frame house. 
An old yellow house. Clap- 
boards patched here and there 
and the patches painted when put up, 
so that the front of the house was tes- 
sellated with squares, some vivid, some 
dull, some of almost obliterated yellow 
paint. Brick sidewalk and a paling 
fence between it and the house. Worn- 
out grass behind the fence, and creeping 
out in tufts between bricks. Weather- 
worn shutters, some open, and some 
tied shut with dangling pieces of 
clothes-line. Tenement region of New 
York. 

On the top floor lived the Boyles; 
second floor, Mrs. Cassidy ; first floor, 
Mrs. Ryan — no polyglot house here, 
you see; not a Schwartzenheimer nor 
a Tortolini in it, but straight Boyle, 
Cassidy, and Ryan from top to bottom. 

Top floor. Early in the morning. 
Mr. Boyle had gone to his hodcarrying, 
but Mr. McGovern, the boarder, who 
worked for Stolliger, the plumber, was 
waiting for his breakfast. Miss Boyle, 
a large, panting person, with the pro- 
file of an overfed Roman Emperor, 
was preparing breakfast. And Mr. 
McGovern was not beautiful: in his 
boyhood he had been a jockey, and 
the print of a horseshoe ran along one 
cheek to his nose. If you should not 
be well acquainted with Mr. McGovern, 
it would be almost impossible to have 
him say a word to you, but let him 
become acquainted and feel himself 
at home and his diffidence would be 
less marked. He was "good," the 
neighbors would tell you. "As quiet 
and decent a man as you'd care to 
meet," they'd tell you. 

In the Boyles' kitchen. An undu- 
549 



lating floor, for the old house had 
settled; stove that inclined so that 
when one part of a frying-pan was 
full of lard the other part was dry and 
smoking; green-painted walls with 
stovepipe holes in them, and the holes 
stopped with green-painted beer-can 
covers; bare floor with loose boards 
that squeaked and rattled when trod- 
den on. With a spade and a pickaxe 
and a crowbar on his knees, Mr. Mc- 
Govern sat at the table, which had a 
newspaper on it for a tablecloth, fret- 
ting because breakfast was not ready. 

"Too bad about you!" said Miss 
Boyle. 

She boiled coffee, and boiled half a 
dozen eggs in the coffee, which is a very 
good way to economize with the fuel. 
Half-a-dozen eggs, in a bowl, set before 
Mr. McGovern, who rested his elbows 
on the tools on his knees, and tapped 
an eggshell. 

"I hope they'll suit you!" said Miss 
Boyle. "I hope we can have one 
breakfast that'll suit you! " 

Mr. McGovern cracking an egg. 
"They're too soft," complained Mr. 
McGovern. 

"Are they?" Miss Boyle snatching 
the bowl with five eggs in it. And 
right at his forehead she threw an 
egg. A splashing and a dripping of 
yellow down Mr. McGovern's astonished 
countenance! 

"Are they?" panted Miss Boyle. 
An egg to an eyebrow. 

"Minnie Boyle, me curse on you!" 
said unfortunate Mr. McGovern, sitting 
still, too astonished to dodge a third 
egg, which burst on his nose and dripped 
beautiful golden nuggets down his 
collar. 



550 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



"Are they?" panted Miss Boyle, 
throwing the fourth and the fifth 
eggs. 

"There, now! Now, are they?" 
she panted. And she sat down vio- 
lently, throwing her apron over her 
head, wailing aloud her views upon 
his ill-treatment of her. 

Mr. McGovern's yellow lips alternat- 
ing in rolling between his teeth. Mr. 
McGovern glancing toward the win- 
dow; but he was a man of self-control 
and did not throw her out; besides 
she was too heavy. 

"Minnie Boyle, me curse on you!" 
repeated Mr. "McGovern. Then he 
rose from the table, tools hugged under 
one arm, and felt his way to the door, 
and seeing yellow, went down yellow 
stairs to a yellow sink, where Mrs. 
Cassidy was filling a pail. 

"Honor of Gawd, Mr. McGovern, 
what's happenedtoyou?" said Mrs. Cas- 
sidy. 

"'Tis Minnie Boyle has me in this 
deplorable condition! "said Mr. McGov- 
ern, feeling for the faucet. "Me curse 
on her! " 

"Ah, no, Mr. McGovern, I'd not say 
that! There's not a day's luck for 
them that calls down curses. But, in 
the name of the Lord, and the good, 
decent man I always found you, what 
did you do to her?" 

"He's an old crank!" wailed Miss 
Boyle, still sobbing with his ill-treat- 
ment of her. 

"Ah, hush, you, Minnie Boyle! 
And you, Mr. McGovern, would you 
come down to my kitchen and I'll 
have the soap and water on you." 
She was a red-cheeked woman of fifty; 
expressionless face, bright eyes that 
stared at the floor and head that 
bobbed at the floor when she spoke. 

Mr. McGovern attenuating egg yolk 
with handfuls of water, but still drip- 
ping yellow, following her to the 
kitchen; pickaxe, spade and crowbar 
thumping with him, down the stairs. 

"Didn't my two eyes tell me it I'd 
never believe it of Minnie Boyle!" 
said the widow. "Ah, but you must 
have plagued her in some way. Ah, 
but 'tis no way to treat any decent 



man." And she was taking his coat 
off. And she cleaned the coat, and, 
having an iron on, she pressed it for 
him. 

Mr. McGovern standing very stiff, 
still biting first one lip and then the 
other, his eyes rolling wildly. " Have 
you a room idle, Mrs. Cassidy?" he 
asked. 

"I have not a room," said Mrs. 
Cassidy. "I have the half of a room, 
which is my front room, which I let 
out to two gentlemen, which the half 
of it is now occupied by Mr. Matthews, 
and the two beds in it. But sure, I'd 
not take a boarder away from a neigh- 
bor, and Minnie Boyle'll be the first 
to tell you her sorrow at mistreating 
you so." 

"Was it to save .me," said Mr. 
McGovern solemnly, but lifting his 
hand so high that there was a marked 
hiatus between his vest and his trous- 
ers, "another night I'll not pass be- 
neath her roof!" 

"Well, then, I have the half of a 
room," said Mrs. Cassidy, "if you 
would submit to share it with Mr. 
Matthews, who is a very sedate and 
respectable gentleman." 

"I will that!" said Mr. McGovern. 

" Then sit you down and have a bite 
to eat and a sup of coffee, before you 
go to your day's labor." 

And that is how Mr. McGovern 
became Mrs. Cassidy 's boarder. 

But there was trouble, later in the 
morning. Miss Boyle had been robbed 
of her boarder; and Miss Boyle gasped 
and panted with indignation, as she 
thought of the widow's unneighborly 
conduct. Miss Boyle coming down 
the stairs, silent until passing Mrs. 
Cassidy's door. Then: 

" It'll be the sorry day for some 
people when they interfered with 
their neighbors! It's a true saying 
you don't know who your friends are, 
and can't trust nobody nowadays." 
Miss Boyle to the front stoop, and 
turning around to go back to her top 
floor. Silence from her until passing 
the widow's door, and then: 

"If some people would mind their 
own affairs, 'twould be the better for 



A GREAT HUMAN PRINCIPLE 



551 



them, and I'd be long sorry to do some 
of the things I see did all around me." 

"What do you mean, Miss Boyle? — ■ 
and I'd not call you Minnie — " Mrs. 
Cassidy's door opening; Mrs. Cassidy, 
with bright eyes in her dull face, staring 
at the stairs, her head bobbing at the 
stairs. " If you're looking to stir up 
trouble, Miss Boyle, you've come to the 
wrong quarters." 

"I wasn't mentioning no names," 
panted Miss Boyle. . "Let them it fits 
take it to themselves if they want to." 

Screech from the first-floor tenant: 

"Minnie Boyle's a common disturber! 
Don't you mind her, Mrs. Cassidy. 
She's been run out of three houses 
as a common disturber." 

"Where's your old man today, Mrs. 
Ryan?" a panting jeer from Miss 
Boyle. "Think where your old man 
is and then keep pretty quiet and don't 
open your mouth to others." 

Loud slamming of first, second and 
third-floor doors ! Miss Boyle standing 
close to her back window and jeering 
out at the first-floor tenant ; Mrs. Ryan, 
with her head out her window, shriek- 
ing up frantically ; Mrs. Cassidy staring 
at a backyard clothes-pole, chanting 
monotonously. 

An old man appearing at a window 
of the house opposite. 

All three ladies expressing their 
bitterness and hatred. 

Old man tucking a fiddle under his 
chin and playing. 

Sudden lull in the warfare ; desultory 
attacks, then angry accusations ceasing. 

Mrs. Ryan seizing a broom and 
waltzing around her kitchen with it; 
Mrs. Cassidy, her dull face very serious, 
starting a solemn jig; Miss Boyle clap- 
ping her hands and her massive body 
swaying. 

For the old fiddler was playing, 
as he often played, when there was 
trouble in the neighborhood, "Praties 
and fishes is very good dishes!" 
Whole neighborhood in terpsichorean 
ecstasy! Ah, 'tis a rousing old tune 
indeed! Indeed and it is that! "St. 
Patrick's Day in the morning!" And 
Miss Boyle and Mrs. Cassidy and Mrs. 
Ryan are very good friends again — and 



if a bit of the drop then came in to be 
shared among the three of them, why, 
sure, that is nobody's business! 

But, though Miss Boyle seemed 
reconciled to the loss of a boarder — 
"Old crank and good riddance to 
him!" — Mr. Matthews took most un- 
kindly to the acquisition of a boarder. 

Mr. Matthews coming home to 
dinner and learning that he was to 
have a roommate. "'Tis Mr. McGov- 
ern, from upstairs, and not like a 
stranger brought in to you," said Mrs. 
Cassidy. "Quiet, decent man that he 
is, and never a word from him and 
scarce open his lips to bid the time of 
day to you." 

Mr. Matthews, in white overalls, 
his face spattered with white, was a 
whitewasher; a man of fifty; wore a 
shabby suit of clothes, when not in 
white, but wore shirts that were 
broadly and glaringly pink-striped. 
He brushed his hat and shined his 
shoes ; he was shabby and was fifty, but 
had not given up all interest in his 
appearance. His nose was rather 
ruddy and bumpy, but once it had 
been of strong, straight mold, and Mr. 
Matthews was still good-looking; an 
affable, jaunty, verbose man. 

"Him!" said Mr. Matthews, not at 
all affably. "You got him here?" 

"Yes," said the widow, "but what 
of it ? You say ' him ' in such a funny 
way. Do you know aught against 
him?" 

" Perhaps I do and perhaps I 
don't — " began Mr. Matthews. 

But steps on the stairs! Steps 
passing the door and going halfway to 
the floor above. For Mr. McGovern 
was a creature of habit, and, even with 
his mind occupied with the morning's 
sad occurence, he went halfway up 
the stairs he vowed he never should 
tread again. Mr. McGovern hurriedly 
descending to the second-floor kitch- 
en. And great affability from Mr. 
Matthews ! 

"So you're now one of us, Mr. 
McGovern? That's good, and I'm 
glad to share my room with you, and 
you must make yourself right at home 
here. Take your coat off, now, and be 



552 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



comfortable." Mr. McGovern feeling 
not at all at home; Mr. Matthews feel- 
ing so thoroughly at home that his 
manner was decidedly proprietary. 
" If you'll just sit over here, where you'll 
be out of the way, Mr. McGovern!" 
and Mr. Matthews helped prepare 
supper. Went down to the sink and 
filled the kettle ; cleared off the kitchen 
table; then kicked off his shoes and 
stepped into slippers. Mr. Matthews 
was very much at home, but Mr. 
McGovern was a stranger, silent, awk- 
ward and self-effacing. Table set, 
and, from Mr. Matthews: 

"Draw up and be one of us, Mr. 
McGovern! Well, how's the day gone 
with you ? ' ' 

"That's right!" said the widow. 
"Let the both of you chat; I do like a 
little chatting about me." 

"Much like any other day," was 
Mr. McGovern 's answer; knees wrig- 
gling and shoulders wriggling. 

"I like to hear you chat, because 
then I don't so much miss the bit of a 
store I used to have," said Mrs. Cassidy. 
"Did you?" Mr. McGovern inter- 
ested so that he ceased wriggling. 
"That's what I always been wanting 
to go into and been laying by a little 
for." 

Mr. Matthews noting this interest 
and saying hurriedly, "Oh, well, stores 
is pretty dull talking." 

"Oh, no, but go on and chat!" 
begged Mrs. Cassidy. " I do miss my 
store, I do! When I had the store 
there was chatting all day long, what 
with customers and other storekeepers 
coming in. I do so miss the chatting 
of it!" 

Miss Boyle thumping down the 
stairs, pausing on the landing and 
looking into the kitchen. Into the 
kitchen came Miss Boyle, and sat in a 
rocking-chair. Very hard did the 
lady try to seem unconscious of her 
lost boarder; with her left and right 
hands up right and left sleeves, she 
patted her huge arms and tried to 
glance about casually, but the lost 
boarder fascinated her. " Old crank! " 
Miss Boyle panted amiably. Mr. Mc- 
Govern bending low over a pork chop. 



Mrs. Ryan scurrying up the stairs; 
for in this meeting of former landlady 
with ex-boarder there might be some- 
thing worth hearing. On Mrs. Ryan's 
long, sharp nose were spectacles that 
made her a person of most uncanny 
appearance. For the spectacles were 
of magnifying power so great that 
when turned full upon one the lady's 
eyes were increased to the size of 
plums. 

" How'syour husband getting along?" 
asked Miss Boyle, striving to resist 
the fascination of her lost boarder. 

"Oh, fine!" from enthusiastic Mrs. 
Ryan, turning eyes like nightmare 
eyes upon Mrs. Boyle. "They've 
promoted him twice since he's been 
there. Oh, yes, I'm proud of the 
success he's making. His behavior 
would carry him anywheres. Lew 
always was a superior man and got his 
superiority recognized." 

Widow clearing away supper dishes, 
at which Mr. McGovern gazed, as he 
twitched and shifted and wriggled. 
" So your husband is getting along 
all right then, Mrs. Ryan?" 

"Fine!" cried enthusiastic Mrs. Ry- 
an. "They say they never had any- 
body like him. It isn't everybody 
could advance themselves like he does. 
From the very first day they took no- 
tice of how superior he was." 

"When does he get out?" asked 
Miss Boyle. 

"Why, half of his six months is up 
already. Yes," proudly, "they've pro- 
moted him twice, and now he's a 
trusty in the Harlem Police Court and 
only in his cell night-times, when he 
goes back to the Island. Lew always 
was a ambitious man and'd make his 
mark anywheres." 

But Miss Boyle could no longer 
sustain the effort of her resisting. 
"Well, Mr. McGovern, how is your 
supper digesting? I don't hear you 
making no complaints here, like there 
always was for my cooking. Just 
wait till the strangeness wears off and 
Mrs. Cassidv won't be so taken with 
you!" 

"Excuse yourself, Miss Boyle!" wid- 
ow chanting and staring, "but I'm not 



A GREAT HUMAN PRINCIPLE 



553 



taken by no man and once was enough 
for me. I 'tend to my business and 
cook for my boarders and try to make 
it homelike for them." 

" Please be kind enough to excuse 
your own self, Mrs. Cassidy! I wasn't 
passing no remarks, and you don't 
take me up right. I'm sure you're 
welcome to Mr. McGovern, and much 
good may he do you, and no more 
boarders for me — no, thank you!" 

"Minnie," said Mrs. Ryan, turning 
orbs that were startling and almost 
terrifying upon the excited and gasp- 
ing Miss Boyle, "you're a common 
disturber, Minnie, and you ought to 
remember you was ran out of the flats 
for it." 

"Me ran out of the flats? Me that 
left of my own accord ? Then now you 
excuse yourself, Mrs. Ryan!" 

And from the widow: "I'm sure I 
'tend to my own business, and needn't 
be taken up with a man just because 
I cook for him, and once was enough 
for my lifetime!" 

Three excited ladies ! Mr. Matthews 
waving hands at them, crying, "Now, 
ladies! oh, now, ladies, I implore you!" 

Miss Boyle and Mrs. Ryan turning 
to each other wrathfully, but — 

"Here's the rocky roads!" Old 
Mr. Doran leaning out his window, 
fiddling. "Rocky roads to Dublin, 
oh!" Gray-bearded old peacemaker 
playing his liveliest jig, starting up the 
moment angry voices floated to him. 

"Just because I cook for a man — " 
but Mr. Matthews twirled the widow 
to a point in front of him. Widow and 
Mr. Matthews in jig steps. "So please 
excuse yourself, Mrs. Ryan — " But 
Miss Boyle scrambling to hook elbows 
with Mr. Matthews, and Mrs. Ryan 
hopping up to jig advances to sedate, 
retiring Mr. McGovern. "Rocky 
roads to Dublin! " 

And Miss Boyle went backto her floor, 
having amiably parted with everybody ; 
and Mrs. Ryan went away, shaking her 
head with laughter at the dancing, so 
that she seemed to be scattering plums 
broadcast, lingering in the doorway to 
say, "Yes, Lew'll be back in three 
months, now. I hope he won't be too 



proud to know us. He is a little that 
way, and it ain't good for him to be too 
successful. But what I say is, if you 
got it in you, you'll always make your 
mark in the world." And away with 
her. 

"You don't have to stay in here, 
McGovern, you know," said Mr. 
Matthews ; " but go out and take a walk 
or do as you like. You must feel free 
to do just as you like, now you're one of 
us." 

Mr. McGovern, looking as if rather 
resenting this supervisory attitude, 
but then rising and shuffling from the 
room, going to the front stoop, where 
Mrs. Ryan was eulogizing her success- 
ful husband. 

"Him!" said Mr. Matthews scorn- 
fully. " Him! " said Mr. Matthews, 
jabbing his pipe into the little leg 
pocket of his white overalls. 

" But what do you know about him?" 
the widow asked curiously. 

"Oh, never mind what I know or 
don't know, Mrs. Cassidy. Have I, 
in so many words, said I know aught 
wrong about him? " 

"Not in so many words," answered 
Mrs. Cassidy, "but you have intimated 
as much. He's been in the house come 
a year now, and, beyond a drop of a 
Saturday night, which is no more than 
any good man's fault, who can breathe 
a word against him?" 

Mr. Matthews becoming verbose and 
floundering in his verbosity. 

'"Tis a great human principle I 
would apply and test him and expose 
his unworthiness to you," said the 
gentleman mysteriously. "There's 
deep secrets in human life, Mrs. Cassidy, 
and there's great delineations of char- 
acter to those that can delve into them 
and solve their puzzles. I may say, 
Mrs. Cassidy, that there is in all of us 
those principles which are in all of us. 
You follow me, Mrs. Cassidy? And 
being in all of us they're common to 
the lot of us and they're only known 
to them that delve into them. You 
follow me?" Profound gentleman 
shaking a forefinger, advancing, forcing 
his landlady up and down along the 
undulations of the kitchen floor; his 



554 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



landlady bobbing and staring and turn- 
ing one ear to him to concentrate her 
attentiveness. "So, then — you follow 
me? — so then, them that can delve into 
the complexities of humanity can apply 
them, and them are what I've delved 
into " 

Mr. McGovern returning, having 
wearied with the absent, but successful 
Mr. Ryan. 

"Oh!" said Mr. Matthews, affable 
again, "didn't stay long? Well, you 
can read your newspaper, if you want 
to. You can sit here and read your 
paper, now you're one of us." 

Mr. McGovern betraying decided 
resentment; Mr. McGovern sitting 
down and drawing his lean knees to- 
gether as if that would help him express 
his resentment, but — but Mr. Matthews 
wound the clock! And what a small, but 
what a speaking act! To wind a clock 
in any home seems the one significant 
sign of supremacy in that home. Mr. 
McGovern said nothing and picked up 
a newspaper, as he had been given per- 
mission to do. 

Other evenings Mr. McGovern came 
home from his work and went past the 
Cassidy door and halfway to the rooms 
above before recalling that he lived no 
longer on the top floor. Mr. McGov- 
ern did not yet feel at home. 

And he showed that he did not feel 
at home. Take any evening in the 
widow's kitchen. Miss Boyle dropping 
in, panting and gasping on the sofa. 
Miss Boyle remarking that the weather 
was warm, or that the weather was 
cold; trying to appear unconscious of 
Mr. McGovern, and then: 

"Well, how do you like your new 
boarder, Mrs. Cassidy? Oh, you'll find 
him out in time and see how cranky 
he is." Mr. McGovern not retorting, 
but shifting in his chair uneasily. 

And from Mr. Matthews: "You can 
light up your pipe, if you want to, 
McGovern." 

Mr. McGovern lighting his pipe, as if 
recognizing permission given by one in 
anything. 

And, "Oh, McGovern, if you'll let 
me have that chair! I sorter look on 
it as my chair." 



Mr. McGovern meekly surrendering 
the armchair, and Mr. Matthews, feet 
up in another chair, making himself 
comfortable in it. 

From Miss Boyle: " Indeed, and if he 
was as mild as that upstairs, there 'd 
never of been any trouble. Just you 
wait, Mrs. Cassidy — " Struggling with 
herself to avoid an unpleasant subject. 
"Oh, well, what do you think about 
the agent giving Mrs. Ryan her floor for 
a dollar cheaper? Serve all alike is 
what I say. Does the cooking here suit 
you any better, Mr. McGovern?" 

Briskly from Mr. Matthews: "Well, 
McGovern, you can turn in any time 
you want to, you know." 

"Yes, sir; thank you, sir," meekly 
and humbly from Mr. McGovern. 

But another evening. Mr. Matthews 
saying to the widow mysteriously: 
"Oh, everybody ain't what they seem. 
Oh, a quiet, decent man, is he? But 
wait till I try a great human principle, 
some day, and that's where the test 
comes in! " 

Mr. McGovern was on the stairs. 
And only one step on the way to the 
top floor did Mr. McGovern take this 
evening. Force of habit was weaken- 
ing in him, and he wheeled back from 
the first step. 

Mr. McGovern coming into the kitch- 
en and taking his coat off. 

Mr. Matthews eyeing the coat 
askance, but saying, "That's right, 
McGovern; take your coat off and be 
comfortable." 

" 'Tis not necessary to tell me! " said 
Mr. McGovern. " I've got me strange- 
ness wore off considerable, now." 
Rolling up his sleeves, taking the arm- 
chair, saying, "Mrs. Cassidy, if you're 
ready, I'll have my supper now." For 
Mr. McGovern was beginning to feel at 
home. 

"Draw up to the table, McGovern," 
invited Mr. Matthews, though he 
scowled at the usurped armchair, 
which he regarded as his own arm- 
chair, "and you mustn't act like a 
stranger with us." 

"Again," said Mr. McGovern, "'tis 
unnecessary to tell me, though me 
thanks to you for your kindness. But 



A GREAT HUMAN PRINCIPLE 



555 



draw up yourself, and don't be looking 
so strange, Matthews. Tis the social 
side of a meal that is half its charms; 
and sit down yourself, Mrs. Cassidy, 
and don't be bothering waiting on us, 
but let each one wait on theirselves. 
Sure, Matthews, man, don't be looking 
so glum, but be like you was one of 
ourselves." 

'I ought to be! " said Mr. Matthews 
glumly. "I been here long enough, 
too." 

"And me!" said Mr. McGovern; 
"'tis always my way to feel a little 
strange, at first, but the strangeness 
wears right off." 

"So I see!" from gloomy Mr. Mat- 
thews. 

"Bring it right here, ma'am!" Mr. 
McGovern to Mrs. Cassidy, who was 
carrying a platter of good Irish stew 
from a pot on the stove. "Right here 
forninst me, ma'am, and I'll apportion 
it out for the lot of us. Where's your 
plate, Matthews? Speak up if you 
want a bit of stew." 

" I don't know that I do! " said mel- 
ancholy Mr. Matthews. "I think I'm 
feeling somewhat off my feed." 

"Ah, well, then, Mrs. Cassidy, so 
much the more for us two. But you 
needn't leave the table, Matthews; you 
can sit here and be one of us, even if 
you are off your feed." 

A melancholy Mr. Matthews all 
evening, and all evening a lively, 
dominating Mr. McGovern, until Mr. 
Matthews thought of the clock. It 
was an eight-day clock, but every 
evening Mr. Matthews wound it as a 
crowning domestic act. 

"McGovern," said Mr. Matthews 
weakly, " you don't have to sit up and 
bear us company, you know." 

And Mr. McGovern 's air of aggressive 
self-confidence had flown. "Why, no 
— oh, don't be bothering about me," 
said Mr. McGovern awkwardly. For 
the winding of the clock had put him 
back in an overshadowed position in 
the widow's home. 

"If you'll let me have my easy- 
chair! " suggested Mr. Matthews 
briskly, all his glumness dissipated by 
his feeling of restoration to command. 



"Not troubling you too much, but 
that's always been my chair." 

"Sure, excuse me for the liberty of 
monopolizing it! " awkward Mr. Mc- 
Govern was quite crushed back into 
strangeness again 

"You must feel yourself amongst 
friends," said Mr. Matthews patroniz- 
ingly. "Don't stand on no ceremony 
with us here, but just be yourself. 
You can go to bed, or you can go out 
and take a walk, just what you like." 

"Why, yes — thank you, sir!" from 
Mr. McGovern. He had risen from the 
easy-chair, and he stood faltering be- 
tween going to the street and going to 
the front room. 

"Just hand me my pipe over there, 
like a good fellow!" Mr. Matthews 
stretching back in his armchair, feet 
up on the sofa, showing very well that 
he knew which was the dominating 
boarder. Mr. McGovern meekly hand- 
ing Mr. Matthews the pipe. 

The next evening! Mr. McGovern 
coming into the kitchen, without taking 
even one or even half a step toward the 
floor above. Mr. McGovern coolly tak- 
ing Mr. Matthews's hat and coat from 
the nail in the door; dropping Mr. Mat- 
thews's hat and coat on a chair, hanging 
up his own, instead. And Mr. Mc- 
Govern saying to Mrs. Cassidy: 
"What! going to bother cooking for us 
this hot day? Here's some change; 
would you go out to the delicatessen 
and bring us in whatever strikes your 
fancy most?" 

"I would, and glad, too! "said Mrs. 
Cassidy. "'Tis no pleasure standing 
over a hot stove, a day like this. Had 
3 t ou your mind set on a hot meal, Mr. 
Matthews?" 

"Ah, sure, and he don't count!" 
said Mr. McGovern, laughing boister- 
ously, but good-naturedly. "Any- 
way, 'tis two against one." Mrs. 
Cassidy feeling embarrassed, standing 
hesitating in the doorway. 

"Oh, don't mind me! " from melan- 
choly Mr. Matthews . "I don 't count. ' ' 
And when the widow brought back 
corned beef and potato salad he re- 
fused to eat anything sent for by his 
rival, but then, unable to explain con- 



556 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



tinued loss of appetite, made a sand- 
wich, with very ill grace. 

Supper over, and Mr. McGovern 
going to the front room, where he 
busied himself with his trunk. And 
back to the kitchen he came, with 
several large, framed, crayon portraits 
under his arm. 

"I might as well have these hanging 
on your wall, if you don't mind, Mrs. 
Cassidy," he said, ""lis the por- 
traitures of me father and mother, if you 
don't mind." 

" I'd be pleased, and they'd be orna- 
ments to the wall," said Mrs. Cassidy. 
•' If you're not afraid they'll be spoiled 
by the smoke from the stove." 

" Oh, not at all! " said Mr. McGovern, 
"and I have more portraitures to hang 
up in your front room." 

Mr. 'Matthews sitting stiff on an un- 
comfortable chair, his lips moving. 
Very likely Mr. Matthews was saying 
to himself, "I don't count!" 

"And, if you'll bear with me for 
saying as much, ma'am," from Mr. 
McGovern, " I don't think your chairs 
are fixed so economical of space, 
here. I'd be much preferring to have 
the table at the other end of the room, 
if 'tis all the same to you." 

"It is, to be sure, Mr. McGovern," 
said the widow sweetly, but with an 
anxious glance at depressed Mr. Mat- 
thews, stiff and awkward as ever Mr. 
McGovern had been. 

"So, if you'll move a little, Mat- 
thews! " 

Mr. Matthews standing up and then 
not knowing where to go, for, as soon 
as he turned toward a chair, Mr. 
McGovern picked up that chair and 
placed it somewhere else. 

"Do sit down and make yourself 
at home," urged Mr. McGovern, who 
was very much at home. And then: 
"Now it strikes me that this chair 
would make more of an appearance 
over here," as Mr. Matthews wretch- 
edly stumbled toward a chair. 

"Ah, but you have the great eye for 
effects, Mr, McGovern! " ^ cried the 
admiring widow, whose indignation 
would have been boundless had a 



feminine boarder dared thus to reor- 
ganize her home. 

"And have you everything in for 
the morning?" asked Mr. McGovern. 
" Is there anything you want?" 

"There is not," answered Mrs. 
Cassidy; "there is not naught but a 
bit of wood to be brought up from the 
shed." 

"Then give me the key!" Mr. 
McGovern going down to the wood- 
shed, coming back with an armful of 
wood, which was an act of such agoniz- 
ing domesticity that Mr. Matthews, 
stammering that the room was too 
warm, fled to the front stoop. 

" Ah, but this is very nice and home- 
like! " Mr. McGovern in the arm- 
chair. 

" 'Tis a strange thing, sir," from the 
widow, "that a man like yourself, 
with such quiet tastes, never had a 
home of your own." 

"'Tis me nature to be very particu- 
lar," Mr. McGovern answered. "I 
have not met the woman would suit me. 
But you're right, ma'am, me tastes 
was always quiet and homelike, barring 
me ambition to have a bit of a store 
somewheres, for which I got the money 
laid by, and I'd be thinking of the 
home and naught else. Sit down and 
we'll have a chat, ma'am, and don't be 
bothering with them dishes, for you 
work too hard as it is." 

"And you little dream the care a 
house is! " said the widow, taking a 
chair beside her boarder. "You could 
be busy from morning till night and the 
half of your work never done ; and was 
I the kind to go gadding about I don't 
know where I'd be. Ah, yes, Mr. 
McGovern, 'tis a great pleasure, is a 
bit of a store. There's people coming 
in to' chat with you all day long." 

"Would it be second-hand furni- 
ture?" asked Mr. McGovern. "I 
should say there 'd be money in a 
store like that " 

But Mr. Matthews, who had been 
unable to remain in the room, was 
then unable to remain away from the 
room. Coming back. 

"Matthews," said Mr. McGovern, 
"but 'tis the uneasy mortal you 



A GREAT HUMAN PRINCIPLE 



557 



are! Sit you down and don't feel like 
a stranger so." 

But Mr. Matthews had returned 
with a purpose. He had returned to 
restore himself to his rightful rank. 
Then he would place chairs and tables 
back in their original positions, and 
then, with dominion re-established, 
those flaunting, intruding portraits 
should come down from the wall. Mr. 
Matthews striding toward the mantel- 
piece; he would reduce his rival to 
humbleness again. 

"Oh, Matthews," said Mr. McGov- 
ern carelessly, "never mind that; I've 
already wound the clock." 

"You have?" Mr. Matthews de- 
manded fiercely. "Oh, have you?" 
without spirit left. 

"I have that!" said Mr. McGovern. 
" But you can go to bed any time you 
want. Be easy and free and don't 
feel called upon to sit up, just because 
Mrs. Cassidy and meself are having a 
bit of a chat — Did you ever see the 
uneasy like of him! " 

For Mr. Matthews had fled. 

Mr. Matthews and Miss Boyle meet- 
ing on the stoop. 

"Why, I thought I just saw you 
down here," said Miss Boyle. 

"Then you see me again!" 

' ' Oh ! crowded out ? ' ' 

" No, I'm not crowded out! " Indig- 
nant Mr. Matthews! "Who'd crowd 
me out? I'd like to see anybody 
crowd me out! " 

"Sorry I spoke!" said Miss Boyle. 
"I was only thinking of your new 
boarder. I was only wondering if he 
was feeling at home yet." 

"He's most — most — most damna- 
tionally at home! " spluttered wrath- 
ful Mr. Matthews. "He's — But 
would you come around to Farley's 
and have a little drink, Miss Boyle?" 

"Well," said Miss Boyle, "I might 
have one." 

So they went to Farley's and sat in 
the back room, where Mr. Matthews 
pressed the electric button in the wall, 
and kept on pressing till some of his 
ill-temper was relieved. 

"Is he at home?" spluttered Mr. 
Matthews. "Oh, no, but it's the 



retiring, timid spirit he has and not a 
word out of him and not daring to call 
his soul his own. Oh, yes, but those 
are the most distinguishable charac- 
teristics of him! Why don't you get 
him back to board with you?" 

"Him? Old crank! No, thanks!" 

"Why, I only thought you was sore 
at having him taken from you." 

Bartender vigorously rubbing the 
table with his bar rag, splashing his 
customers, setting down two glasses. 

" 'Twas a unneighborly thing to do, 
and no mistake," said Miss Boyle. " I 
put him out and, for a million, wouldn't 
have him back, but 'twas a unneigh- 
borly trick to take him from me so, and, 
for one, I wish he wasn't in the house." 

"Listen, then!" said Mr. Matthews, 
his elbow on the table, his forefinger 
waving in front of Miss Boyle's Roman 
nose. "There's other ways for to get 
him out of the house. This is between 
ourselves, isn't it ? " 

"Oh, certainly, and never go no 
farther, for all of me!" 

"Then I know something he's done, 
and, when Mrs. Cassidy learns it, she'll 
have him no more in her rooms." 

" He has ? " Miss Boyle much inter- 
ested, peering over a schooner's rim. 

" Well, 'tis not so much I know some- 
thing he's done, as I know he's done 
something. Now, wait! you follow 
me? This is between the two of us, 
isn't it? Then this night I'll write 
a letter to Mrs. Cassidy, telling her of 
the serpent warming its fangs at her 
fireside ; of the wolf in human disguise ; 
of the vulture and hyena with their 
parents' portraits on her walls." 

Miss Boyle steadily gulping, but her 
eyes looking deep interest over the 
rim of the glass. " Why, sure, and he's 
an old crank," from Miss Boyle; "but 
is he as bad as all .that, I don't know? 
Why will you be telling her all that?" 

"To arouse the suspicions of her 
against him!" said Mr. Matthews. 

"And then?" 

"That'll start her investigating and 
looking up his record. I'd investigate 
him myself only I ain't never had no 
steadiness in me for any such detective 
work. But, out of her own curiosity, 



558 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



she will look up his record, if I once 
raise the suspicions of her, and she'll 
find out what he's done." 

" Find out what?" impatiently. 

"Find out what he's done!" said 
Mr. Matthews. 

" And what's that ? " 

''I don't know." 

"Aw, such talk! such talk!" Miss 
Boyle disgusted and rising. "You 
don't know what he's done ? Then how 
do you know he has done anything?" 

"There's the point!" cried Mr. Mat- 
thews. "Every man has! That's just 
it! That's the great human principle 
I'm working on; which is that every 
man has something in his past that he'd 
fear to have found out. I'll rise Mrs. 
Cassidy, and she'll investigate what 
McGovern's particular secret is." 

"Ho! hum! the men is a bad lot!" 
said Miss Boyle indifferently. 

When Mr. Matthews went back to 
the second-floor rooms of the old yel- 
low house the masterfulness of Mr. 
McGovern irritated him highly. 

"But never mind!" said Mr Mat- 
thews to himself, "I'll fix you!" 
More masterfulness, under which Mr. 
Matthews writhed. But Mr. Matthews 
said: "Oh, just wait!" 

The next day was Saturday. On 
Saturdays Mr. Matthews worked half 
days, so he was home a little after noon. 
And he went lightly up the tenement 
stairs. He blithely entered the Cas- 
sidy kitchen, for with Mr. McGovern 
away working, he might dominate. 
So, joyously, Mr. Matthews entered 
the kitchen, and 

"Merciful Father, Mr. Matthews," 
cried Mrs. Cassidy, "but I've been 
hearing strange tales of you!" 

Blitheness swept away, and conster- 
nation instead! "Then she's been 
here?" the gentleman faltered. 

" Honor of Gawd, Mr. Matthews, but 
I'd never thought it of you!" 

"What did she say?" tremulously. 
"Was the childer with her? How did 
she find out my address? " 

"Don't speak to me!" cried the 
widow. "The men is all alike! You 
can't trust nobody! So you bare- 



faced admit you have a wife and childer 
you left to shift for theirsel ves ? ' ' 

"But I couldn't support them all!" 
groaned Mr. Matthews. " How long 
since she was here, and will she be right 
back? And will I have time to get my 
trunk packed? She'd shoot me, let 
alone having the police onto me, Mrs. 
Cassidy. It'll look bad for me leaving 
the lot of them in midwinter and not a 
cent in the house. Was she very wild 
about it, Mrs. Cassidy?" 

But Mrs. Cassidy had run to the 
hall, and up on the stairs she sat until, 
having packed his trunk, he hastened, 
with it on his shoulder, down the stairs. 

"Mercy on us!" Mrs. Cassidy was 
saying to Miss Boyle, "but there's been 
revelations, this blessed morning, to 
me! It's a married man he's been all 
the time and not only married, but 
got a wife and small childer besides." 

"But how'd you ever come to hear 
word of it?" Miss Boyle asked. 

" 'Tis that is the queer part of it," 
Mrs. Cassidy answered. " I did but 
begin accusing him, just to find out, 
and there, my dear, he outs and gives 
his own self away. 'Was she here?' 
he says, and nobody mentioning such 
a person. There's the way of the 
wicked for you! I got this letter this 
morning and began accusing him, and 
me not knowing what I was talking 
about, to see if the way of the wicked 
would be the way of him — and it was ! 

Miss Boyle reading the letter. 

"But, woman, dear, this don't say 
which of your boarders is meant." 

Mrs. Cassidy reaching for the letter 
and carefully reading it. "Why 
indeed, and you're right, and does it? 
But how well I lit on the right one of; 
them and never thought of accusing' 
t'other one. Miss Boyle, in the name 
of the Lord, what ails you?" 

Miss Boyle shaking with billowy? 
laughter. " Did you ever hear th 
like!" cried Miss Boyle. "But h 
was right about at least one man having 
something in his life he'd not want 
uncovered! Why, woman, dear 
though he meant to rise your suspi- 
cions of the other one, you've found 
him out bv his own letter." 



The Currency Trust 



BY FLAVIUS J. VAN VORHIS 



(Conclusion) 

IT is indispensable to understand 
what, in financial economics of 
any country, is standard money. 
All the money reported in the Circula- 
tion Statement is not standard money. 
There is an economic distinction, as 
before stated, between standard money 
and other kinds of money. Standard 
money has one peculiarity — one dis- 
tinction — and only one. That dis- 
tinction does not depend upon the 
material out of which it is made . Stand- 
ard money will perform every function 
that any other money will perform, and 
in addition will pay a debt over the 
objection of the creditor. This one 
distinction — regardless of what may 
have been its origin in the past or in 
other countries — is at this time in this 
country the result of law. It is pro- 
vided by law that a certain thing shall 
be accepted by a creditor in payment 
of debts he holds when the debtor ten- 
ders it to him in payment. Such pro- 
vision of law makes standard money, 
without regard to the material of which 
it is composed. It is standard of pay- 
ment. If the Government can make 
paper money legal tender — and there 
is no doubt that it can — it can make it 
so that in no respect will it differ eco- 
nomically from metallic coins that the 
same Government has made legal ten- 
der. If both are legal tender by vir- 
tue of the same law-making power, 
then both are "standard money." 
There is no economic reason why every 
dollar of what is commonly called 
money cannot be issued by the Gov- 
ernment and made "standard of pay- 
ment," legal tender, money. There is 
no reason in common sense or in eco- 
559 



nomics why money intended to be used 
in business ought not to be good enough 
to pay debts, under any and all circum- 
stances, to any and all creditors. 

If it be true, as claimed by the advo- 
cates of the single gold standard, that 
the value of the coin as money depends 
upon the value of the metal there is in 
it, then it would be wise to take them 
at their word. If this claim is correct, 
then the legal tender quality given to 
it by law adds nothing to its value, and 
may without injury be taken away 
from it. It would be wise to do this, 
and give that quality to paper currency 
to be issued by the Government. It 
would certainly not make the paper 
currency any less useful in business, 
nor the coin, if they are correct, any 
the less valuable as money. Let them 
be taken at their word, and see how 
quickly and how loudly they will pro- 
test. In this way the hypocrisy of 
their arguments will be shown, and the 
utter dishonesty of their present pur- 
poses. There is no possible honest 
reason for decreasing the amount of 
debt-paying money — legal tender — 
and putting in its place money that is 
not legal tender, and that creditors 
may refuse to accept when debtors 
present it, and will refuse as sure as 
fate when they find it will be to their 
interests to do so. 

This is the side of the financial ques- 
tion on which the dealers in, and hold- 
ers of, credits are preparing a corner 
on debts with the manifest purpose to 
rob their debtors. On the other side, 
production and commerce are being 
stimulated, and credits are being 
manufactured, with astonishing rapid- 
ity. On the business side, the question 
is not limited to debt-paying money, 



560 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



but includes all kinds of money and 
everything that can perform in any 
degree the money function by assisting 
in exchange. On the debt side, it is 
not difficult to determine with approxi- 
mate correctness the volume of money 
to which the quantitative theory ap- 
plies. On the business side, it is more 
difficult. It is almost impossible to 
tell anything about what is the volume 
of money and money equivalents to 
which, in determining the activity of 
exchange, the theory applies, except 
that it is very large and rapidly increas- 
ing. Surprise is changed into astonish- 
ment when, in the face of such condi- 
tions, it is announced with such assur- 
ance by the most prominent and ardent 
champion of bimetallism that the 
money question "must remain in abey- 
ance until conditions change." Just 
what "change in conditions" is sup- 
posed to be necessary to revive the im- 
portance of the question has not been 
suggested by any one of those who 
think it "must remain in abeyance," 
"because of its decreased importance." 
The inference is that we must wait for 
a decrease in the production of gold. 

A standard of payment is national. 
Because it is the result of national law 
it cannot be international. It has 
long been recognized that it is not de- 
sirable that it should be. If such 
standard is metallic, the coin is the 
standard and not the metal. If the 
standard is metallic, it is subject to an- 
other danger quite as serious as de- 
crease in the production of the metal. 
The coin can only be standard money 
so long as it remains in the country 
and under the dominion of the law by 
which it was made a standard. As a 
national standard, it cannot be ex- 
ported. As a metal, it can. If the 
standard is made out of gold, then the 
export of gold is equivalent to the de- 
struction of so much of our standard 
of payment. If we receive gold by 
importation, it is possible to increase 
our standard money by coinage of it, 
but no such increase by importation 
can be reasonably expected if the re- 
ports of the Treasury Department of 
past imports are to be taken as any in- 



dication of what will occur in the fu- 
ture. Since 1835 we have lost by 
exportation almost $1,000,000,000 in 
gold. Considerably over half of this 
has been lost since i860. During the 
year ending June 30, 1905, there was a 
loss of almost $40,000,000. Decrease 
in the production of gold, for which it 
seems to be believed we must wait to 
have the importance of the money 
question revived, is not therefore the 
only thing that threatens our supply 
of the metal, or that will tend to de- 
crease the volume of our standard 
money, if gold is to be the only thing 
out of which it can be made. We will 
be compelled to compete with all na- 
tions that want gold to keep the gold 
we produce at home. Why should our 
national standard of payment be sub- 
jected to the constant danger of de- 
creased production and increased ex- 
portation of gold ? 

The purposes of the financial com- 
bination, as already indicated, are to 
limit the standard to gold coin and to 
induce Congress to grant to the banks 
a further special privilege, in addition 
to the many valuable special privi- 
leges they already have, that will en- 
able them to increase bank currency 
and to create bank credits almost with- 
out limit. These purposes are not 
new. The extent to which they have 
already been accomplished is sufficient 
to make ridiculous the proposition that 
increase of gold production has in- 
creased the importance of the financial 
question. The gentlemen who have 
made this absurd assertion have ad- 
mitted that it is known that the advo- 
cates of the gold standard intend a 
crusade against silver now in circula- 
tion until it is destroyed as a standard 
of payment, and its use as such limited 
to subsidiary coin. They have admit- 
ted .that it is intended to withdraw the 
greenbacks and substitute a bank cur- 
rency. They have admitted that it is 
known to be intended, if possible, to 
substitute an asset currency that is not 
legal tender for all currency, coined or 
issued by the Government, except gold 
coin and subsidiary silver. For any 
man to make the admission that he 



THE CURRENCY TRUST 



561 



has such knowledge, and then assert 
that the money question has decreased 
in importance, is a manifestation of a 
want of knowledge quite as unexpected 
as the want of knowledge of the relative 
weights of silver coins. 

Mr. Bryan, during and after the 
campaign of 1904, made this absurd 
proposition, and asserted that the 
people cannot understand the question, 
and that we must wait for an object- 
lesson and for time to open their eyes, 
and for events to reveal the purposes 
of "Wall Street. He has asserted that it 
will be useless to press the question 
now. Was there ever anything more 
absurd? It is astoundingly absurd 
when it comes from Mr. Bryan. Has 
not evil enough been done that we 
should wait for more of it as an object- 
lesson? Time has opened the eyes of 
some people; and Mr. Bryan claims 
that his eyes are open. Events have 
revealed to some people the purposes 
of the "financial group," and Mr. 
Bryan claims that their purposes are 
known to him. If he has the interest 
in the American people we have be- 
lieved him to have, what excuse can he 
offer for not pressing the question in 
1904 and since? The purpose of the 
scoundrels who are delighted to be 
called financiers has been for forty 
years proclaimed by legislation they 
have induced an uninformed Congress 
to enact. Some people have not 
understood it; some people have not 
wanted it to be understood; but it is 
not therefore less important, nor is the 
duty of men who have understood it 
less imperative. What is the duty of a 
man who has access by voice and pen to 
the people, and who claims to under- 
stand the situation? Resort has been 
had to every possible method and de- 
vice that dishonest ingenuity could 
suggest to confuse, mislead and de- 
ceive, that it might be concealed what 
was the purpose and how it was to be 
accomplished. In the face of this we 
are told that the question must remain 
in abeyance and nothing done. 

Whether these leaders of 1896 have 
intended to do so or not, they have 
made themselves a party to these efforts 

October, 1906 — 6 



by declaring "it is useless to press the 
subject at present." By what right 
does any man assert that the people 
will not consider the question, or, if it 
is properly presented, that they cannot 
understand it? Wall Street has not 
had much doubt about their being able 
to understand it. The discussions of 
the period of 1876 were led by a party 
few in numbers, but were understood 
by enough people to compel the undo- 
ing of a part of what the financial 
scoundrels had accomplished. The 
information the people got in 1896 from 
the Democratic Party was meagre and 
one-sided, but it filled these scoundrels 
with terror and caused them to expend 
millions of dollars to prevent that in- 
formation from bearing its legitimate 
fruit. The victory was lost because 
of bad faith, individual treachery and 
party blindness. In 1900, when people 
were beginning to know something 
about it and were anxious to hear more 
than they had heard, partisan stupid- 
ity permitted the insertion in the Kan- 
sas City platform of the declaration 
that imperialism was the paramount 
question. This was in effect saying 
that an imperialistic result was more 
important than a plutocratic cause. 
The purpose of this declaration was 
not candid. It was intended to be, 
and was made, the basis of excuse 
everywhere for discouraging and pre- 
venting the discussion of the financial 
question that the masses wanted to 
hear more than anything else. 

In 1904, when it was manifest to 
everybody, and could not be otherwise 
than understood by those who had 
been recognized as leaders in 1896 and 
1900, that it was the purpose of Wall 
Street influences to take possession of 
the party organizations everywhere and 
put an end to the discussion of financial 
questions, a forlorn struggle — one 
might almost say a pretended struggle 
—was made at St. Louis to keep the 
question within range. The result was 
what everybody expected ; what every- 
body knew it would be. When the 
struggle had ended in the convention, 
Mr. Bryan and Mr. Towne, with other 
leaders, abjectly submitted to the de- 



562 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



cree of Wall Street, that the question 
should not be discussed at all. As if 
this was not sufficient abasement of 
themselves, and abashment of their 
friends and former supporters, Mr. 
Towne, who attended the convention 
as a gagged member of the Tammany 
delegation, accepted an invitation to 
come to Indianapolis and speak for the 
glorification of Taggart — a man known 
by everybody in Indiana to be of a 
notoriously bad political character, to 
say nothing worse, the keeper of the 
worse gambling hell in America, and 
who had in 1896 and 1900 professed 
loyalty to what we had hoped was a 
new democracy, and at the same time 
kept up intimate relations with its 
enemies, trying to keep himself solid 
with both, but actually ready to betray 
either. Mr. Bryan, who had been the 
hope of a large independent vote, 
allowed himself, by a debased and im- 
moral party loyalty, to be tied to the 
tail of the Democratic donkey, and 
dragged through Indiana as a decoy, by 
whose advice it was hoped the voters of 
the state could be induced to do what 
he, himself, had promised his friends 
and his country he never would do. 
As surprising as was his advice, it was 
less surprising than his excuses after 
the election. One of these excuses was 
that it was the fault of the people that 
the money question was dropped out of 
discussion. 

The complete surrender of the St. 
Louis convention to Wall Street, and 
the admission of Mr. Bryan and Mr. 
Towne that gold production had prac- 
tically brought all the advantages that 
could have been expected from a return 
to bimetallism, and that the money 
question thereby had become of so little 
importance that it was not worth while 
to press it, was followed in December 
by a brief reference to the question by 
the President in his message to Con- 
gress. The recommendations made by 
the President were in exact accord with 
the wishes and purposes of the " finan- 
cial group." This group was then, and 
is now, made up of men not many of 
whom have ever in all their lives created 
a single dollar of wealth; but whose 



lives and efforts have been given to 
accumulating what others have created. 
The President recommended the de- 
struction of all Government legal ten- 
der currency and the redemption of 
silver dollars in gold. This is sufficient 
to show conclusively that the President 
has either desired to assist the scheme 
of this group of scoundrels and that the 
recommendations were the price of 
Wall Street's support, or that he had no 
correct knowledge of the subject con- 
cerning which he was making recom- 
mendations. His recommendations 
can in no possible way be made to con- 
sist with an intelligent understanding 
of the subject and an honest effort to 
benefit the country. 

It is most charitable to assume that 
his knowledge was not sufficient to pre- 
vent him from being misled. He gave 
no reason why the greenbacks should 
be retired. It must be supposed that 
he had in mind the usual reason given 
by the "financial group" — that the 
greenbacks are a debt and ought to be 
paid. This was first a department con- 
struction under which the larger part of 
this currency was destroyed. The dis- 
cussion of 1876 already referred to 
saved the amount of this currency that 
we still have. The position it now has 
is that, while, by the efforts and influ- 
ence of these so-called financiers, it has 
been made redeemable in gold at the 
option of the holder, no part of it can be 
destroyed. However often this cur- 
rency is presented and redeemed, it is 
paid out again. The President's knowl- 
edge seems not to have been sufficient 
to make it clear to him that there was 
an absurdity almost ludicrous in coup- 
ling with this recommendation a recom- 
mendation that silver dollars be made 
redeemable in gold. If both recom- 
mendations should be adopted, the re- 
mainder of the greenbacks would be 
destroyed, and silver dollars would be 
placed in precisely the same position 
that the greenbacks now are. If green- 
backs ought to be paid and destroyed 
because they are promises to pay gold, 
there is no reason that is either sensible 
or honest in the proposition to make 
silver dollars promises to pay gold. If 



THE CURRENCY TRUST 



563 



greenbacks are promise-to-pay dollars, 
and are made out of material of little or 
no value, it is absurd to propose to 
destroy them and put in their place 
promise-to-pay dollars made out of 
material as expensive as silver. Prom- 
issory notes are usually written on 
paper of little value. It would be a 
most ridiculous proposition to ask to 
have a law enacted to compel all such 
promises to pay to be engraved upon 
silver plates. It would be just as sen- 
sible; it would be no more foolish than 
to ask to have promise-to-pay dollars 
made out of silver. 

The greenback currency, first by de- 
partment construction, and afterward 
by law, was made equivalent to de- 
mands on the Treasury for gold, and 
became, as everybody knows, a con- 
venient instrument for getting gold 
out of the Treasury when wanted for 
speculative exportation. This oper- 
ation can be continued endlessly, be- 
cause the currency is paid out again 
in the regular course of business. The 
very same men who were principally 
instrumental in bringing this situation 
about have been urging this "endless 
chain" as a reason for the destruction 
of this currency. The present situa- 
tion shows the insincerity of this class 
of financial freebooters. If the Presi- 
dent is not himself one of them, then 
we must conclude that by deception 
they have induced him to put himself 
in the ridiculous attitude of recom- 
mending that an endless chain be 
made out of silver and substituted for 
the paper chain. This would, of 
course, be much worse than the other 
because there would be more dollars in 
it. 

Suppose this should be done, is it not 
plain what would occur? Precisely 
the same reason will apply for redeem- 
ing and retiring silver dollars, when 
they are made redeemable in gold, that 
is now urged for retiring greenbacks. 
It will then be just as valid an argu- 
ment against the silver currency as it 
is now against the greenback currency. 
It requires no prophet to predict that 
the effort willbe made to drive silver 
dollars out of existence. This is de- 



sired because it will leave their place, 
and the place of the silver certificates, 
to be filled by bank currency. It can- 
not be reasonably doubted that this is 
the ultimate purpose that is behind the 
recommendations, whether the Presi- 
dent knows it or not. When this is 
accomplished, the gold standard of 
payment will have been fully estab- 
lished and not until then. When the 
President's recommendations are 
adopted we will have, amplified, the 
ridiculous situation of one legal tender 
being redeemable in another. This is 
not, therefore, the end of the scheme. 
No one ought to be deceived. The 
purpose is to get silver dollars out of 
the way entirely. It is intended to 
destroy them, not only as legal tender, 
but as a currency, just as was done by 
the Act of 1873. This part of the pur- 
pose will not come to light at once, but 
sooner or later it will be disclosed. 
There is no doubt about it. 

On April 6, 1906, the loans and dis- 
counts of national banks amounted to 
$4,141,176,698. It is shown by the 
reports of the comptroller — a fact to 
which I have before referred — that 
during the year 1905 there was an in- 
crease of these loans and discounts of 
over $1,150,000 for every business day. 
What would be the result if no further 
increase of such credits should be per- 
mitted? What would be the result if 
all banks should refuse to increase 
their loans and discounts? What 
w r ould be the result if an attempt was 
made to reduce the amount of these 
credits 25 per cent., or even 10 per 
cent.? Can any thoughtful business 
man have any doubt about what would 
be the effect? Is there any doubt that 
business depression would follow an 
attempt to prevent further increase, 
and that business disaster would follow 
an attempt to decrease? With such a 
situation as this, and the fact that the 
legislation recommended by the Presi- 
dent has already been embodied in a 
bill, and introduced in Congress, and 
that such bill contains also provisions 
for an asset currency, and for branch 
banks, it is almost astounding to have 
such a man as Mr. Bryan assert that 



564 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



the financial question is less acute and 
less important than it was ten years 
ago. 

There is no doubt that it is the pur- 
pose of the so-called financiers to se- 
cure the destruction of every form of 
legal tender money except gold. 
There is no doubt about the banking 
interests desiring to secure the control 
of the entire volume of all other cur- 
rency, and to have such additional 
special privileges as will enable them 
to create and inflate credits without 
any limitation or control whatever by 
the Government. The entire business 
of the country will then be done on the 
credit of banks, currency, loans and dis- 
counts. Every form of business will be 
at their mercy. They can and will ex- 
act tribute from every industrial and 
commercial activity. When silver is 
made redeemable in gold, sooner or 
later, as certainly as night follows day, 
the same group of scoundrels who are 
now advocating such redemption will 
demand, and in all probability will 
secure, iti retirement. The metal will 
be sold in foreign markets where, since 
i860, about a billion dollars of our 
silver production has been sold. 

The apparent want of information, 
and the apparent want of proper con- 
sideration of our industrial and finan- 
cial situation, not only among the 
masses, but among those in high official 
position, is such that it is never im- 
proper — in fact, it seems almost neces- 
sary — to take advantage of every op- 
portunity to discuss the economic 
purposes and results of bimetallism. 
Slver and gold are commodities. 
They are not, as metals, in any modern 
sense money. They are materials out 
of which, in accordance with law, 
money is made, just as lumber is 
material out of which furniture is made. 
Lumber has a value in exchange — in 
the market — as lumber, but when it is 
converted into furniture it loses its 
value as lumber, and in its new form 
has an economic — exchange — value as 
furniture only. Silver and gold have 
an exchange value as metals. When 
these metals are coined, as provided by 
law, the coins acquire another value — 



an exchange value — as money. The 
coins have a new purpose — a new use — 
and have a new value just as furniture 
has a purpose and use as furniture, and 
therefore a new value. The coins do 
not, however, lose their value as metal 
when coined as does lumber its value 
as lumber when made into furniture. 
Herein is the difficulty. 

The value of standard money, no 
difference out of what it is made, has 
the same economic origin as the value 
of commodities. If the coins are legal 
tender the money value is increased by 
the demand there is for such coins to pay 
debts — that is, as a standard of pay- 
ment. The value of the material will 
be increased by this increased demand 
just as the value of lumber will be in- 
creased by an increased demand for the 
things made of it. But when lumber 
is made into furniture, and it loses its 
value as lumber, such value can never 
be restored. Not so with silver and 
gold when coined. The metals never 
lose their value as metals. Because 
they do not, the coins are subject to 
change in value in two ways. This is 
not an advantage as is sometimes 
claimed, but is a very grave disadvan- 
tage, that under bimetallism is in con- 
siderable degree mitigated. It is 
claimed by some that the money value 
of the coin depends upon the com- 
modity value of the metal in it. This 
is a groundless and deceptive claim. 
It is not true under bimetallism, but it 
is among the purposes of the financiers, 
without doubt, to bring this about, and 
at the same time, by limiting the 
standard to one metal, to increase the 
value of that metal. At present the 
silver dollar is — unless the contract to 
pay provides that it shall not be — the 
equal of the gold dollar as a debt-pay- 
ing money. This is because its money 
value depends upon the law. The 
commodity value is not supported by 
the law, and the metal in a silver dollar 
is not equal in commodity value to the 
metal in a gold dollar because the com- 
modity value of gold is supported by 
law. These two values are a constant 
cause of disturbance and injustice as 
between debtors and creditors. It is 



THE CURRENCY TRUST 



565 



impossible to prevent metallic money 
from being influenced by fluctuations 
in the value of the metal. The best de- 
vice that experience has suggested to 
reduce this fluctuation to the minimum 
is the use of two metals at a fixed ratio. 
To get the full benefit of this device 
the metals must be treated exactly 
alike in their use as money, so that 
when the demand for one metal for all 
purposes, including its use as money, 
increases in value, the demand for 
money will turn to the money made out 
of the other. This never has entirely 
prevented the fluctuation, but it has 
reduced the range of it to the minimum. 
It has been one of the purposes of the 
so-called financiers of the world to de- 
stroy this control because it has inter- 
fered with speculation in the metals, 
and has in some degree prevented 
debtors from being robbed. 

In 1873, Congress, without knowing 
it, passed an act that destroyed ab- 
solutely the lawful existence of the 
silver dollar. At the time the silver in 
a dollar was worth more than the gold 
in a dollar. When this deception was 
discovered, a public demand forced 
Congress to restore it. But here again 
the schemers got in their work. The 
dollar was restored, but in such a way 
that, while the silver dollar remained 
standard of payment for many debts, 
the metals were no longer treated 
alike in their use for money. The range 
of difference in the commodity value of 
the metals was, as a consequence, 
greatly increased. There were rela- 
tively few men who knew much about 
the subject, and this want of knowl- 
edge was taken advantage of to de- 
ceive and to confuse the people. The 
advantages of bimetallism were in 
large degree lost. Every ounce of gold 
had free access to the mint for coinage, 
while only a limited amount of silver 
could be coined. There is a large 
volume of debts for which silver dollars 
are still a standard of payment. This 
has been sufficient to hold the equality 
of the coins as standard money. For 
this reason the "financial group" 
desires to get them out of the way. 
The President's recommendation, 



whether he knows it or not, has that 
purpose. This crowd of dishonest 
schemers, that are misleading the 
President, pretend that, because of this 
difference in the value of the metals, 
the silver dollar is a dishonest and un- 
safe form of currency, and that it 
ought to be made redeemable in gold 
to make it safe and honest. This, of 
course, if done, will practically destroy 
it as a standard of payment. It will 
in effect compel the nation to furnish 
gold to pay every debt, for whoever 
gets silver on a debt can present it and 
ask to have it redeemed in gold. With 
silver legal tender out of the way, the 
value of gold will control the money 
value of every dollar of our entire 
volume of standard money. With the 
silver dollar out of the way, there will 
be nothing to prevent the perpetuation 
of the most extensive, far-reaching and 
disastrous robbery of debtors, public 
and private, of which history gives any 
account. 

The existing silver standard of pay- 
ment has been seriously crippled, but 
it still has some power to protect 
debtors by holding down the value of 
gold, as does also the greenback stand 
ard. The effect of the President's rec- 
ommendations, if enacted into law, 
will remove the last vestige of this 
safeguard. If there is left only one 
standard by which debts can be paid, 
and that standard is made of gold, the 
value of the standard will be completely 
controlled by the commodity value of 
the metal. This value will go up like 
a rocket, because it will be the only 
thing out of which debt -paying money 
can be made, and the amount of avail- 
able gold will be inadequate to supply 
the demand for debt-paying money. 
The amount of gold available will 
stand against the great volume of the 
world's debts. The amount of gold 
available will equal in exchange value 
all other things of exchangeable value, 
not only in this country, but in the 
civilized world. 

This is the goal toward which we 
are urged by the President. This is 
the goal we will have attained when 
the Government has ceased to have 



566 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



any control over either metallic or 
paper currency; when individual inter- 
ests shall, as now, control the coinage 
of gold and the issue of all paper cur- 
rency has been surrendered to national 
banks, and is controlled, as it will be, 
by a combination of Eastern banking 
capital. When this is accomplished, 
gold will, to all intents and purposes, be 
the legal tender by weight, and will be 
controlled absolutely by the creditors 
of the world. It will enable the holders 
of, and dealers in, credits not only to 
profit enormously at the expense of the 
world's debtors by an increase in the 
demand for gold, but will enable them 
to increase that demand at will to an 
extent and urgency that must result 
in such a disaster as no country has 
ever before experienced. 

In furtherance of the purpose to 
increase the value of debts in the hands 
of creditors, and decrease the value of 
property, plans are being made to 
secure, through an uninformed Con- 
gress, and a misled President, special 
privileges by which, under the stimula- 
tion of bank currency and other money 
equivalents, they can manufacture 
credits and make public utilities the 
basis for interest-bearing debts, that 
in the end must be paid, if it is possible 
ever to pay them at all, by a standard 
money contracted to such volume .as 
it is possible so have out of the pro- 
duction of one metal, or so much of it 
as we are able to retain in the face of 
the world's competition. 

The mistaken belief of Mr. Bryan 
and Mr. Towne, and the mistaken rec- 
ommendations of President Roosevelt, 
play directly into the hands of the 
worst set of respectable financial scoun- 
drels that were ever a curse to any 
country. Unless the people awaken 
to an understanding of the situation 
and there is a revolution in public 
thought, the time will come when they 
will be "crucified on a cross of gold." 

This "financial group" is entirely 
willing that such friends of the people 
shall be the instruments of public de- 
ception and crucifixion. 

The evils of metallism are inherent. 
Bimetallism has been a palliation of the 



evils, but it has never been sufficient 
to remove them entirely. Even with 
bimetallism the time was approaching 
when it would cease to be even a pro- 
tection, when the volume of debts and 
other demands would increase the 
demand for standard money until that 
demand exceeded any possible volume 
of both metals, and the evils would 
return, as they did during the Civil 
War, when the Government was com- 
pelled to increase the volume of 
standard money by the issue of legal 
tender paper. This currency was the 
credit of the country used for money 
and for the benefit of its own people. 
This has been proved by experience to 
be the best possible money for any 
nation such as ours. The credit of a 
stable nation is the only just and safe 
standard of payment. It is now pro- 
posed to destroy what is left of this 
splendid currency; that could do and 
did do, even though damaged in its 
making by the selfish greed "of the 
nation's wealthiest citizens," what gold 
never has done and never will do, and 
put in its place a dangerous currency 
secured only by the assets of national 
banks. 

The asset currency proposition has 
been given form and is laid away 
somewhere in the congressional files. 
Two years ago the passage of the bill 
containing this formulated proposition 
was recommended by the Committee of 
the House on Banking and Currency. 
An argumentative report was sub- 
mitted with the bill. It is not certain, 
of course, that when the proposition 
reaches this or some future Congress 
it will be in the same form. Judging by 
past methods in financial legislation, 
it is altogether likely that this bill was 
intended, as other bills have been, to 
feel the public thought and thus to 
judge how much could be safely, or at 
least successfully, attempted. However 
this may be, it discloses the purpose 
and substantially the plan of procedure, 
and the bill and the report ought to be 
carefully considered — but there is little 
hope that they will be — by every 
American citizen. The report is full 
of economic absurdities, of transparent 



THE CURRENCY TRUST 



567 



pretenses and bold-faced misrepre- 
sentation. It leaves no room for 
doubt that the man who prepared 
it has, by long subserviency to Wall 
Street, so warped his intellect that he 
was able to believe his own sophistries. 
It may be true, although less charitable 
to say it, that this report is a conscious 
and premeditated effort to deceive — 
one more step in the scheme of rascal- 
ity. The bill abandons all economic 
learning and all teaching of history, 
but the report asserts that it is intended 
to "secure the advantages of ex- 
perience." It is proposed in the bill 
to place the national credit under the 
control of national banks, but it is 
pretended in the report that this is to 
protect that credit. Pretending to 
protect the Treasury Department, it is 
proposed to take away its power as a 
department of Government and make 
it nothing more than an aid to national 
banks. It is assumed, without reason 
or argument, that the Government 
currency is a grievous burden, and it is 
proposed to give to the national banks 
a bonus in the way of a most profitable 
special privilege to carry this pretended 
burden. The report says the Govern- 
ment ought to be relieved of responsi- 
bility, and advises the passage of this 
bill, which takes from it all power over 
what the report calls "commercial 
reserve," that is — if this means any- 
thing — over the gold that, according 
to the scheme, is to be the only money 
that will, when creditors get ready to 
demand it, pay debts. 

The bill actually proposes to prac- 
tically strip the Government of all 
power over its own financial system. 
Under its provisions the Government 
would have no power to coin money 
except at the request of individuals, 
and no power to issue paper currency 
except upon the demand of national 
banks. It reduces the Treasury De- 
partment to the position of a collector 
and disburser, without power to have 
a financial policy or power to control 
banks. The report recommends to 
"simplify its fiscal system" the passage 
of the bill, and, under the flimsiest 
pretext, recommends the issue of all 



money, on which business will be com- 
pelled to depend, be turned over to 
national banks. The whole of this 
proposed currency, if the plan is 
carried out, will be a debt due from 
banks. It will be an interest -produc- 
ing device that will possess the extra- 
ordinary character of producing inter- 
est for the benefit of the debtor banks. 
Oblivious to the fact that foreign trade 
has not added a single dollar to the 
nation's wealth since 1873, but that 
on the contrary our exports, for which 
we have had no equivalent, have ex- 
ceeded our imports by more than seven 
billion dollars, it is claimed that the 
establishment of branch banks at home 
and in foreign countries will increase 
this trade and develop the marine 
service. The committee does not men- 
tion, if indeed it knows anything at all 
about it, that the branch bank prop- 
osition, for which provision is made 
in the bill, is a scheme in the interest 
of the Eastern banking combination, 
and that it will enable this combina- 
tion more easily to exact tribute from 
every business and every industry of 
American citizens at home and abroad. 
The committee caps the climax of 
pretenses by the old and often used 
pretense that the credit of the nation 
is in danger, and by the same old 
hypocrisy about our "commercial 
honor." 

This bill was on the files of Congress 
before the President made his recom- 
mendations, and it looks as if he had 
it in mind. There are some who, 
when they read what I have written, 
will say: Surely this cannot be true; 
surely it must be a mistake or an 
exaggeration. To any such, all that 
I can say is, get a copy of House Bill 
No. 13,363, of the Fifty-seventh Con- 
gress, and study it. 

This is not all the evil that is con- 
tained in that bill. Some things in it 
the committee do not mention. In 
the body of the bill is found the ma- 
chinery of a scheme to put it practically 
out of the power of the people to free 
themselves, without great difficulty, 
from the grasp of the " financial group " 
which this bill will give. It provides 



568 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



for abolishing the office of the comp- 
troller and putting in his place a board 
of three members, each of whom will 
hold his office for twelve years, one 
going out every four years, and no 
one of whom can be removed by the 
President, if there should be a change 
of administration. The inference 
amounts to a certainty, that it is fully 
understood that when the grip tightens 
the people will protest, and this prep- 
aration is here made to prevent any 
interference by reason of possible 
political changes. There would always 
be two members of the board who 
would hold over. The Hill bill, intro- 
duced in a former Congress, and many 
provisions of which have since been 
enacted into law, contained this same 
provision almost word for word. In 
the report of the committee on that 
bill it was frankly avowed that the pur- 
pose of this proposed change in the 
comptroller's office was what I have 
indicated. 

The asset currency proposition con- 
tained in the bill is intended to enable 
the banks to issue a currency without a 
deposit of bonds to secure it. It is not 
intended to compel the retirement of 
currency secured by bonds, although 
that might be done, and possibly would 
be done at some time. There is noth- 
ing in the bill that would prevent banks 
from retaining the bond currency and 
taking out asset currency, provided 
the aggregate was no greater than the 
paid-up capital. One of the specific 
purposes of the bill is to destroy the 
greenback currency concurrently with 
the issue of asset currency. The pre- 
tense that there is a purpose to relieve 
the Treasury Department of the burden 
of the legal tender currency by putting 
it on the banks is a cover for giving 
them this special privilege. It is 
pretended that the issue of this pro- 
posed currency is a privilege given to 
national banks in consideration of 
their agreeing to provide for the cur- 
rent redemption of the legal tender 
notes. It will not require much ex- 
amination of the bill, and the report, 
to convince any intelligent man that 
the whole contrivance is a fraud, and 



that no burden rests upon the Treasury 
Department by reason of the legal 
tender notes, or if any does, it is not, 
by the provisions of the bill, trans- 
ferred to the banks in such a way that 
it is any burden to them. No . good 
reason has ever been given why these 
notes should be redeemed and retired. 

If this formulated plan should be- 
come a law, it will result in two kinds 
of national bank currency. One kind 
will be secured by bonds, and the ulti- 
mate security of the other will be the 
money of national bank depositors. 
The honesty of intention in the pro- 
posed issue of such currency is dis- 
closed by a public utterance of the 
secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Shaw 
is said to have expressed the opinion 
that the asset currency should be so 
made that, when issued, the public 
could not tell the difference between it 
and the bond currency. Think of this 
from a Cabinet officer! A man only a 
few degrees above a moral idiot ought 
to be able to understand the immo- 
rality of such a proposition. The whole 
scheme is tainted with immorality, as 
will be more fully appreciated when we 
consider the security for this asset- 
currency-bank-debt. 

More than 62^ per cent, of the aggre- 
gate of national bank paid-up capital is 
now held by the Treasury Depart- 
ment to secure bond currency; and 
more than 10 per cent, of it is held to 
secure United States deposits. In 
other words, about 73 per cent, of the 
aggregate paid-up capital is already 
out of the hands of the banks and held 
by the Government. It cannot be 
reached by any lien against assets. 
Banks thus encumbered can receive 
an amount of asset currency, if the 
plan of this bill is carried out, equal to 
10 per cent, of their capital each 
year until the aggregate of bond cur- 
rency and asset currency equals the 
paid-up capital. According to the 
provisions of this bill, or of any propo- 
sition for asset currency that has yet 
come to light, it is intended that the 
currency shall be a first lien on the 
assets of the bank issuing it. In the 
event of the bank failing it is provided 



THE CURRENCY TRUST 



569 



that "The United States Treasury 
Department shall recover from the 
assets of said failed bank an amount 
equal to its outstanding asset cur- 
rency." 

Under such a scheme who, in the 
name of reason and honesty, furnishes 
the ultimate security for this currency 
debt of the bank? What constitutes 
the assets of a bank? Not capital 
alone, but everything that is reported 
by the bank under the head of re- 
sources. This includes the money of 
depositors. On April 6, 1906, the 
aggregate paid-up capital of the 5,975 
banks then in existence was $819,307,- 
406, and the resources or assets $7,760,- 
617,682. The liabilities, exclusive of 
capital, surplus and undivided profits, 
were $6,289,945,394. Of this amount 
it appears that the liability to deposi- 
tors was about $5,000,000,000. The 
banks have in their hands, as part of 
bank assets, that amount of money 
belonging to depositors. It ought 
rather to be said that they owe their 
depositors that amount, for they do not 
have that amount of money on hand, 
and cannot have any such amount for 
the reason that it is largely in excess 
of the "General Stock of Money in the 
United States." The deposits are 
five-eighths of the aggregate assets, 
and are of course covered by any first 
lien against bank assets. If asset 
currency is secured by a first lien 
against assets, less than 27 per cent. 
of the capital can be covered by 
it, because 73 per cent, of it is held by the 
Treasury Department. No bank fails 
with its capital unimpaired. When a 
bank fails it is because it has lost its sur- 
plus and a part at least of its capital. 
The ultimate security for this proposed 
currency will, without doubt, in every 
instance, rest upon the money of de- 
positors. As security for the bond 
currency the Treasury Department 
has in its possession the equivalent of 
every dollar of such currency. It will 
hold nothing with which to pay the 
asset currency. The Government will 
hold no collateral security for it, but 
will hold a first lien against bank 
assets for the benefit of asset-currency 



holders. This currency will be, as any 
bank currency is, just as much a debt — 
a liability — as the debt due depositors. 
There is no equitable reason why the 
holders of this currency, or of any 
bank currency, should have any pref- 
erence over depositors. If, as a matter 
of public policy, it is necessary for the 
Government to guarantee bank cur- 
rency to the holders of it, it ought to 
be done directly. The honesty of the 
plan to secure bank currency by the 
credit of the Government, and provide 
for the Government reimbursing itself 
out of bank assets, is questionable. 
It is unjust to bank depositors and 
other bank creditors, whether that 
currency be secured originally by 
bonds or by a lien against assets. 

Every dollar of bond currency now 
outstanding rests upon the credit of 
the Government. This will be true of 
the proposed asset currency. In both 
cases it is the credit of the Govern- 
ment loaned to the banks at about the 
cost of issuing the currency. 

The special privileges granted to 
national banks are very profitable to 
them. The business men of the coun- 
try must surely understand that the 
holders of bank currency, whether 
secured by bonds or a first lien on 
assets, are nothing more than pre- 
ferred creditors of banks. The Gov- 
ernment protects the currency holders, 
not at its own expense, but at the ex- 
pense of other creditors of the banks; 
at the expense of the business com- 
munity depositing in the banks and 
doing business with them. If public 
policy requires that the credit of the 
nation shall be used to secure bank 
currency, it is difficult to understand 
why it will not be better, in every way 
less complicated, much safer and more 
in accordance with business honesty 
for the Government to issue the cur- 
rency without any intervention of the 
banks. Why should the credit of the 
country be used for the profit of banks 
at the expense of the Government and 
of private business interests ? The ad- 
ministration is making investigations 
and bringing suits to relieve the people 
of the evil and the injustice of com- 



570 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



mercial and industrial trusts, but 
seems to be wholly oblivious to the 
fact that the recommendations made 
and legislation proposed will, if enacted 
into law, create a currency trust with 
more power for evil than all other 
trusts combined. 

For now more than a year the 
general public has heard very little 
about asset currency. Now and then 
we have been entertained by press 
reports of official twaddle about an 
emergency currency — for which there 
is no necessity, and that can have 
no purpose, except to aid the New 
York stock gamblers — and about an 
elastic currency that is as impossible 
of attainment in finance as perpetual 
motion in mechanics. We shall, in 
all probability, hear more about asset 



currency in the near future. The 
crusade is about to begin. Literature 
is beginning to arrive from New York. 
The first is a pamphlet by Mr. Johann- 
sen on "The Proper Rate of Taxation 
for Asset Currency." Who he is no 
one knows, except possibly in New 
York. On the back of this pamphlet 
is printed the commendation of Mr. 
Youngman, not much better known, 
but who describes himself "Editor 
Bankers' Magazine." Who pays for 
the printing of such papers and for the 
postage in sending them out can be 
inferred. No such information, how- 
ever, appears upon the publication. 
One thing is certain — judging by the 
past — such publications are sure har- 
bingers of what will be attempted in the 
Congress following their circulation. 



I 



White Magic 

BY HENRY FLETCHER HARRIS 

SEE from this bleak house of mine, 
Across the flats the salt pools shine, 
Now white as frost, now red as wine. 



I hear the slow tides climb and fall, 
And in the cloud the wild ducks call ; 
Days gloom to night, and that is all. 

Yet once of old, Love found a way 
To make this House of Memories gay 
As May — and festivals in May ! 



Often So 



ii "DA, Cupid is the god of love, isn't he?" 
-*- "That is the usual belief, my son." 

"Then it is cupidity that makes people marry, isn't it, pa?" 
"That is generally the case, my son." 





<gl |SH» LiSH-f Ittsna-a, * 



i4 Tasfc for ffte Gods 
Warren, in Boston Herald. 



oboooooooooooooooooooooooocoocoococco^ 



Miss Democracy: " Oft, Goodie, I knew he wouldn't stay 
down long." 
Handy, in Detroit News-Tribune. 



OOCC OCOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOCO 




ooooooooooooooooooooqoqoor 000000000000*1000000000000000 00 00 000000000 00600.99 00 oeoo 



Unc/e Sam: "Mr. Hill, if yon would keep your eyes less on Wall Street and more on your roadbed, you would have fewer 
scenes like that." 
Morris, in Spokane Spokesman- Review. 



571 



im f 






an IDEALIST 



'(MRGflRET BCJ5BEE 5HIPP 



■7-t '*: 






_____ 



11 



Not every love-story has a hero. 



IT will be dreadful to teach in 
that stuffy schoolroom, I do 
wish you would get married," 
said Jane Lacy, with the frankness of 
an intimate friend. "With three nice 
men in love with you, it seems a shame 
for you to ruin your looks and your 
health by teaching. If you would only 
marry — " she paused. 

"Which one?" demanded Patty. 

"Why, I don't know exactly. All 
are nice in different ways. Alfred is 
a splendid fellow, he belongs to such 
an aristocratic family, and he is so 
correct in every way." 

"It's the way they dress him!" 
retorted Patty merrily. "Alfred has 
been overtrained to the point of being 
finical. He has heard so much 
about his deferential courtesy that 
he's all run to manners. He told me 
that the reason he had chosen to teach 
Greek was because it was a profession 
of gentlemen! It takes him ten min- 
utes to peel an apple, and he wears 
overshoes in dry weather." 

" I think it's silly to object to a man 
keeping his feet dry," declared prac- 
tical Jane. "Well, there's Ed Dil- 
lard, he has been in love with you for 
years; he is rich, generous, and has fine 
business ability." 

"Jane, he calls three times a week. 
At ten, I begin to peer at the clock; 
at half-past, I am staring at it in spite 
of myself; at a quarter to eleven, I feel 
as if I must move up the hands to get 
them to the hour. He always rises 
when it strikes. Think of going 
through life with that torture every 
evening! " 

"You wouldn't have to spend every 
evening at home en tete-a-tete." 
572 



"No, but one ought to wish she 
might, when she married." 

"Mr. Marsh is clever, if that is what 
you want. Joe says he will be a leading 
man in the state one of these days." 

" Mr. Marsh never bores me." Patty 
looked thoughtful. " I love to talk to 
him and he has a delicious sense of 
fun. I like him — but I don't admire 
him. He hasn't convictions of his 
own; he veers around to the popular 
side; his newspaper trims its sails to 
keep in the main current." 

"It's very hard to teach," insisted 
Jane, returning to the first issue. 
"You have to be at the graded school 
at half-past eight, winter days and 
rainy days and all. I should much 
rather be married." 

"So should I," assented Patty 
heartily. Then she burst out frankly: 
"Oh, Jane, it's because I should love 
to care for somebody dearly, dearly, 
that I'm not willing to marry unless I 
do! You want to see me marry one 
of these men because you think we 
should be happy like Joe and yourself, 
but don't you see the worldwide dif- 
ference? I don't love any of them. 
It isn't the overshoes or the newspaper 
— it's simply that I shall never marry 
until I care for somebody with every 
bit of my heart and soul, for I know 
I could love that way." 

So it was that Patty . Morrison, 
twenty-three years of age, pretty, rosy, 
blue-eyed, took upon herself the in- 
struction of the primary grade of 
School No. 2. 

Her father and mother were dead, 
and she lived with a married sister, 
whose increasing family meant a di- 
minishing purse, so that Patty felt she 
must be self-supporting. At first she 



AN IDEALIST 



573 



liked the work. Her exuberant enthu- 
siasm conquered many difficulties; 
she loved children and succeeded well 
with them. 

The inevitable rebound came, and 
in the sixth year, when September 
struck in, she felt as if she could not 
take up the daily routine of school. 
Her work had been changed, so that 
the arithmetic classes fell to her. All 
day long she taught arithmetic, until 
she loathed the very sight of figures 
or the drone of the multiplication table. 
She came home at night with a bundle 
of papers to look over. 

At Christmas Ed Dillard came to 
see her. He had moved to a larger 
town and she had not seen him for a 
year. She studied herself critically 
in the glass — the daily roses that used 
to bloom in her cheeks had not been 
hardy enough to withstand the late 
hours that her work entailed. She 
was twenty-nine, and she looked every 
day of it. Mr. Marsh was engaged to 
the governor's daughter. Alfred was 
married. Ed alone remained faithful 
to her, and his constancy touched 
her. She thought of the years of 
work ahead, and she was tired already. 
All her friends were married; she was 
the only spinster in their book club, 
the only one who was not "settled" 
— with varying degrees of happiness 
and success , it is true , but still " settled. " 

Several had children, Jane had three 
— and oh, how every fibre of Patty's 
being yearned for them! There is 
many a mother who has never borne 
a child, and Patty's soul was tenderly, 
deeply maternal. But she never spoke 
of th s now , nor of any of the innermost 
longings of her heart, as she had done 
once to Jane. 

"An old maid is bad enough; let me 
keep it to myself if I'm a sentimental 
one," she thought. 

Often she dreamed of her lover to 
whom she might have given her heart 
unbidden. Should . she give up her 
maiden fancies, her ideals of love and 
living, and take Ed Dillard for her 
husband ? 

A few days before, the writing- 
teacher had come into her room to set 



some copies, and as she wrote down, 
"To thine own self be true," she said, 
"That's a nice line., and all in mono- 
syllables! " 

Patty had turned aside not to betray 
a smile, and had forgotten the incident. 
Now she seemed to see again the words 
written before her, incisive, penetrating, 
their beauty not obscured by hack- 
neyed use. 

Her heart was heavy as she refused 
to marry Ed Dillard, but her soul felt 
as if a load of possible treachery had 
been lifted. 

The years went by, one like another. 
Pretty, plump Patty Morrison was for- 
gotten, thin and prim " Miss Patience" 
had taken her place. Only her serene 
blue eyes gave a clue to her old friends' 
statement, "Patty used to be so pretty, 
can't you remember? " 

She was angular and flat-chested 
now, and for twenty years she had 
taught arithmetic in School No. 2. In 
the summers she rested, if she felt very 
tired; or she went to a summer school 
to keep from getting rusty, though she 
found it increasingly difficult to keep 
up with new methods. Her salary en- 
abled her to help her nieces and 
nephews, and perhaps her greatest joy 
lay in the fact that the two boys owed 
their college education to her. Some 
of her old friends were very fond of her, 
but with most of them there was a 
touch of patronage. When Jane gave 
an elaborate luncheon she felt that it 
was rather nice of her to invite Patience. 
It was not because ot the turned black 
dress and shabby bonnet, but because 
"Patty has grown so tiresome; she 
never talks of anything but the graded 
schorl or her sister's children." 

How could she — poor Miss Patience, 
who had known only that treadmill 
through a score of years? 

Her friends were very good to her 
when her health broke down. The 
physicians called it "nervous prostra- 
tion," the name which covers divers 
manifestations of overspent vitality. 

Fortunately the attack came in the 
summer, but doctors' fees had made 
deep inroads upon Miss Patience's slen- 
der purse, and she was glad when Sep- 



574 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



tember began and she could go to work. 
A few days before school opened the 
new superintendent called. He was 
suspiciously jaunty and smiling. 

"Ah, Miss Morrison, good morning! 
I have been distressed to hear of your 
illness. In fact, it was the main cause 
that determined me to change your 
work to something less — er — engrossing 
than mathematics. I wish you to take 
the primary work in School No. 3. The 
walk to the school is longer, but I am 
sure the exercise will prove a benefit." 

"And the salary?" asked Miss Pa- 
tience quietly, her thoughts on the bills 
that were still unpaid. 

"It is — er — ten dollars a month less 
than what you have been receiving." 

"Did I not give satisfaction where I 
was?" 

She was thinking of the pleasant 
teachers with whom she had been 
associated for years. She shrank from 
the strangers of School No. 3. 

"Well, since you insist upon it," 
replied the young superintendent, with 
some hesitation, " I think you gave too 
little oral work. Too many papers, 
entirely too many! " 

Instinctively Miss Patience put up 
her hand to her glasses. They also 
bore testimony to the "many papers" 
over which she had labored faithfully 
these many years. 

The school was on the outskirts of 
town, among the factory population, 
and she found her new position a hard 
one. 

One night as she sat in her room, 
utterly weary, a card was handed to 
her. To her surprise it bore the name 
of Mr. Edward Daingerfield Dillard. 

She was glad to see him, though she 
wondered whether she would have recog- 
nized her girlhood friend in the pompous , 
stout gentleman whom the state papers 
always called "a financial magnate." 
She asked about his work, and felt in- 
terested in the great success that had 
attended it. He told her that he had 
decided to buy his old homestead and 
build a magnificent residence there. 
He had been living in New York, but 
since the death of his wife and the 
marriage of his only daughter he had 



grown tired of the city and had come 
back to his birthplace. 

In quite the old way he talked about 
himself; at ten Miss Patience caught 
herself stealing glances at the clock; at 
half-past ten she was counting the 
ticks; the stroke of eleven saved her 
from nodding outright. 

Miss Patience represented a distinct 
quantity in Dillard's prosperous life. 
She was the only thing he had ever 
wanted — and wanted very earnestly — 
that he had not obtained. How she 
must regret that youthful folly! It 
was with a benignant sense of his own 
magnanimity that he wrote the next 
day and asked her to marry him. 

It was raining dismally when Miss 
Patience came back from school. She 
was changing her bedraggled skirts, 
when a young girl entered hurriedly. 

"Oh, Aunt Patty, would you mind 
darning my white silk stockings? You 
do it so beautifully, and I should ruin 
them." She tossed them on the bed as 
she spoke. " Here's a letter for you. " 

Miss Patience bathed her tired eyes, 
and holding the stocking close to see it 
well enough, darned back and forth 
in tiny stitches. She did not pick up 
the letter until she had finished. It 
was probably the receipt from the 
druggist. 

Twice she read the contents of that 
surprising letter. She closed her eyes 
and tried to picture the glorious possi- 
bilities within her reach. No longer to 
be patronized by old friends nor 
slighted by superintendents many 
years her junior; no more days in 
School No. 3, surrounded by ill-smelling 
factory children! A beautiful home, a 
carriage, exquisite soft clothes such as 
she had always wished to wear, and 
which would keep her from looking — 
as she overheard someone say — "Fifty, 
if she's a day! " 

How amazed the town would be 
when she became the wife of its one 
millionaire! How much she could do 
for her sister's family, and for the many 
poor people to whom she gave now, 
though so scantily in comparison with 
what Mrs. Edward Daingerfield Dillard 
could give! She lingered on the pros- 



AN IDEALIST 



575 



pect — but underneath she heard the 
insistent voice of that conscience 
whose promptings she had followed all 
these years. 

She had refused Dillard in her youth 
because she did not love him. She did 
not love him now. Was her woman- 
hood weaker than her girlhood? Was 
the long struggle of years to go for 
nothing ? 

Her answer astonished Dillard more 
than any event of his life. She never 
told anyone of his offer. 

"They would think me crazy," she 
thought, with the smile that had be- 
longed to the old Patty. " If one could 
decide a thing once for all and have 
done with it! My life seems to have 
been a series of decisions." 

But a deep, new peace had come to 
her, and she wondered sometimes why 
Dillard's offer had been the temptation 
that it undoubtedly was. She flung 
herself with more ardor into her work 
among the factory children, delighting 
in the sure seed she saw growing in soil 
that had seemed barren. 

When Dillard married one of the 
prettiest debutantes of the season, 
and Patience heard the congratulations 
lavished upon the young girl, whose 
head was turned by the "brilliant 
match," she felt only a tender pity for 
the child who had parted so early with 
the ideals which are our best inheri- 
tance. 

Miss Patience had taught for several 
years at School No. 3 when an epi- 
demic of grippe swept the town. When 
she finally succumbed to the disease 
the doctor declared she had been resist- 



ing it too long, in her effort to keep on 
with her work and to help a young 
teacher who was ailing. 

She realized that the end was near, 
and the nieces and nephews who hung 
around her bedside felt their eyes grow 
dim at the look of expectation, of ex- 
altation, on her worn face. 

Many of the little children missed 
the kind gaze of the near-sighted blue 
eyes. Her old friends felt glad they 
had been so good to poor Patience. 

To one person she remained an un- 
solved enigma. Mr. Dillard looked 
around his palatial residence, at the 
pretty wife who enjoyed it as any 
reasonable woman would do, and 
wondered. 

"Poor Patty! She must have been 
a little touched! " 

He followed the way of the world in 
putting down as eccentric those quali- 
ties which he could not understand. 
How should he have understood, when 
not one of the people among whom 
Patience Morrison had lived her simple, 
unpretending life had recognized that 
she was of the fibre of which martyrs 
are made, to whom the material is 
less than the spiritual, the abstract 
principle everlastingly above the con- 
crete gain. The stress and duress of 
life had not made her confuse the sym- 
bol and the reality. 

They called her "an old maid" in 
half-contemptuous pity, for it needed 
a larger love, a deeper insight than 
theirs, to see that the word covered a 
long, brave adherence to a lofty 
ideal. 




The Railway Mail Service 



BY DAVID A. GATES 



THE Post-office more than any 
other part of the national Gov- 
ernment comes near touching 
every citizen. Few persons there are 
who do not do business to a greater or 
less extent with Uncle Sam's Post- 
offices. Interfere with the mail and 
you seriously affect the business of 
millions of people. Telegraphic and 
telephonic services are too expensive 
for anything but emergency business. 
The United States Mail is by long odds 
the cheapest and most reliable means 
of communication. 

When the merchant does not re- 
ceive his business letters promptly 
he is disturbed. Let the farmer's 
magazine or weekly paper fail to reach 
him in time for Sunday and he knows 
that something is wrong. If it hap- 
pens the second time he will make com- 
plaint, and there is an investigation. 
Probably it will develop that some 
unit in the Post-office Department has 
failed to do his duty, and there is a 
suspension or a removal. If some- 
thing of this kind does not occur, not 
one man in every thousand will stop to 
consider how really good and indis- 
pensable a thing the Post-office De- 
partment is. Levying a comparatively 
insignificant tax for the service, this 
department supplies the life blood of 
the great, throbbing business world. 
Of the $170,000,000 needed annually 
to operate the Post-office Depart- 
ment, 91 per cent, comes from postal 
revenues; the other 9 per cent, comes 
from the tax collected through the Cus- 
toms and Internal Revenue Depart- 
ment. 

And what is the most valuable asset 
of the Post-office Department? What 
576 



is the most necessary part of this 
machine that runs so smoothly and 
makes so little noise that we seldom 
think of it as running at all ? It is the 
postal clerk. Ability is required in the 
distribution and the handling of the 
mail at the Post-offices. But it takes 
something more than ability to do the 
work of the postal clerk. The service 
he performs calls for integrity, intel- 
ligence and courage of a high order. 
Nerve, pluck, energy, endurance, the 
men who handle the mail on Uncle 
Sam's mail trains must have plenty of 
these. 

Last fiscal year the 12,110 postal 
clerks in the United States handled 
18,122,903,880 pieces of ordinary mail 
matter and 41,648,933 pieces of 
registered matter. They made 1,638,- 
860 errors, an average of a little over 
135 errors to the clerk. 

On first blush the number of errors 
may look big; but when the work done 
is considered the million and odd errors 
become insignificant. For every error 
in the handling of mail by postal 
clerks 10,602 pieces were handled cor- 
rectly. Correct 10,602 and incorrect 
once! Where is the business man or 
the professional man who can boast of 
such a record? A merchant or manu- 
facturer, a lawyer or a physician who 
could be relied on to hit the mark more 
than ten thousand times before he 
missed it would be considered a success 
by his fellow-citizens. Even a minis- 
ter of the gospel whose mistakes were 
over ten thousand times apart would 
feel justified in claiming a clear title to 
mansions in the skies. 

While on the subject of errors it is 
interesting to note how rapidly the 



THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 



577 



postal service has grown in proficiency 
since it was divorced from politics. In 
1890 there was an error for every 
2,834 pieces of mail handled correctly. 
After that there was a rapid and steady 
improvement until 1897. Since 1897 
there has been practically no improve- 
ment in the number of pieces carried 
to the error. 

In carrying and distributing the 
eighteen and a quarter billion pieces 
of mail matter the 12,101 postal clerks 
worked on 197,353 m iles of steam rail- 
road, cable and electric car and steam- 
boat lines, and traveled, either alone 
or in crews, 260,210,225 miles. In 
addition to the miles traveled by mail 
clerks in the Railway Mail Service, 
there were 116,373,812 miles covered 
by the Closed Pouch Service, via rail- 
roads, steamboats and electric lines. 
The total increase of mileage of every 
kind in 1905 was more than ten million 
miles over the previous year. The 
number of miles of railway and steam- 
boat lines covered by the Railway 
Mail Service increased, in 1905, 5,321 
miles over the previous year. 

The equipment of the Railway Mail 
Service consists of cars used exclusively 
for the mail and apartments on railwa} 
cars, electric cars and steamboats. 
Last fiscal year there were in use 1,015 
full cars, 2,708 apartment cars and 
115 apartments on steamboats, mak- 
ing a total of 3,838 cars and apart- 
ments in use. The full cars are used 
on through mail trains — the apartment 
cars on local trains. Two or more 
clerks work the full railway Post-office 
lines; a single clerk usually looks after 
a local line. A number of exclusive 
mail trains made up of three or more 
full cars employ a force of from six to 
seventeen clerks. The line employing the 
largest number of clerks, seventeen, is 
one of the runs on the New York and 
Chicago R. P. O. over the New York 
Central Railroad. 

All equipment is provided by the 
railway or steamboat line carrying the 
mail. The full cars and apartments 
are built, however, according to speci- 
fications furnished by the Post-office 
Department. These specifications 

October, 1906 — 7 



have for their object the building of 
cars and apartments in such manner as 
to combine carrying capacity and 
strength ; anti-telescoping features 
looking to the protection of the 
clerks in case of wreck have received 
special attention. 

Discouraging though it may be, it is 
nevertheless true that, judging from the 
record, there has been little improve- 
ment in railway mail equipments during 
the past thirty years. When we take a 
look at statistics we are confronted with 
the startling fact that year by year the 
number of casualties in proportion to 
the number of clerks employed has 
steadily increased. Between July i, 
1875, and July i, 1805, an average of 
6,300 postal clerks were employed. 
During this period 190 clerks were 
killed, 1,439 seriously injured and 3,350 
slightly injured — total, 4,979. The first 
ten years an average of 3,203 clerks 
were employed. The casualties were 
28 killed, 182 seriously injured and 244 
slightly injured — an average of 1 
casualty to every 70 clerks. The next 
ten years the average number of clerks 
employed was 6,480. The records 
show for this period 62 fatalities, 592 
serious injuries and 808 slight injuries; 
total, 1,462 — a casualty a year for every 
44 clerks employed. Then comes the 
last ten years of the period ending July 
1, 1905, with an average of 9,217 clerks 
employed. There were 100 fatalities, 
665 serious injuries and 2,298 slight 
injuries; total, 3,063 casualties — 1 a 
year for every 30 clerks employed. 

The record for the three years from 
July 1, 1902, to July 1, 1905, shows how 
steady the increase in casualties has 
been. The average number of postal 
clerks employed during that period was 
11,214. The casualties foot up for the 
three years 51 killed, including 3 sub- 
stitutes, 293 seriously injured and 1,132 
slightly injured; total casualties, 1,486 
— an average of 1 casualty a year to 
every 23 clerks employed. Annually a 
postal clerk was killed for every 660 
employed, and 1 was either killed or 
seriously injured for every 97 employed. 
During the ten years from July 1, 1875, 
there was a casualty a year for every 70 



578 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



clerks employed ; during the last three 
years there was a casualty to every 23 
employed. Last fiscal year the per- 
centage of fatalities and serious injuries 
was higher than the percentage of 
casualties of every kind in 1880. 

The greatest number of clerks killed 
any fiscal year was in 1904, the number 
being 18 clerks and 2 substitutes. 
Five is the largest number killed at one 
time, that number having been killed 
June 26, 1 89 7, in a wreck on the Wabash 
Railroad, at Missouri City, Mo. A 
like number was killed in a wreck on 
the Southern Railroad at Danville, Va., 
September 27, 1903. 

The postal car is usually immediately 
behind the engine, hence it is not sur- 
prising that the percentage of killed 
and maimed among postal clerks is 
high. For many years the Post-office 
Department has been endeavoring to 
induce the railroads to give the postal 
car a more favorable position in the 
train. The rates paid for carrying the 
mails are said to be much higher than 
those paid by express companies, and 
this higher rate ought to purchase a 
higher class of service. But the rule 
that when Uncle Sam goes into the 
market he gets less for his money than 
any competitor finds a striking illus- 
tration in the service rendered the Post- 
office Department by the railroads. 

The serious question is, what has 
caused this increase in percentage of 
casualties among postal clerks; also 
cannot something be done for the men 
who handle the mails? The postal 
clerk is one of the most important of 
Government employees. The army 
might disband, the soldiers might quit 
fighting "booze" and go into the more 
profitable business of raising cotton 
and corn, and the country wouldn't 
know it. In case of war a voluntary 
army would come out of the fields and 
shops to fight the nation's battles. 
But the postal clerk, the brave postal 
clerk who rides the fast-flying mail 
trains, who faces the storms of winter, 
the landslides of spring and the heat of 
summer, who in devotion to duty does 
not find an equal in one soldier out of 
every ten, without him business would 



stagnate and commerce would pretty 
nearly be at an end. Without this im- 
portant factor in the Railway Mail Serv- 
ice to bring buyer and seller together 
seed-time and harvest would be of little 
consequence. 

It may be noted in passing that pos- 
tal clerks are not the only persons who 
have fared badly at the hands of the 
railroads. In recent years there has 
been a remarkable increase in the per- 
centage of casualties to passengers on 
railroad trains. According to the re- 
port of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, the railroads in 1897 carried 
489,445,198 passengers. Of these they 
killed 222 and wounded 2,795 — a casu- 
alty for every 162,229 passengers. In 
1904 they hauled 715,419,682 passen- 
gers. Of these they killed 441 and 
wounded 9,111 — a casualty for every 
74,897 persons hauled. In seven years 
the casualties increased from 1 to 162,- 
229 passengers, to 1 to every 74,897 
passengers. The chance of a passenger 
being hurt in a railroad wreck in- 
creased over 100 per cent, between 1897 
and 1904. Inasmuch, therefore, as the 
increase in persons killed and maimed 
by the railroads does not apply exclu- 
sively to postal clerks, but applies to 
passengers as well, it is evident that the 
railroads have increased their killing 
capacity in a general way and that they 
are not directing their attention spe- 
cially to the extermination of postal 
clerks. 

With railroad consolidation, con- 
tinuous lines and fast schedules have 
come an appalling increase in the killed 
and wounded of every class of persons 
who have anything to do with railroad 
trains. Whatever advantage may have 
come to mankind by the elimination of 
time and space has been paid for in 
blood. The railroads have been success- 
ful in making fast time, likewise have 
they been successful in increasing the 
number of widows and orphans. 

But returning to the postal clerk; 
when the ability necessary to do the 
work of a postal clerk, the class of the 
service and the dangers that are inci- 
dent to it are taken into consideration, 
there is probably no class of men on 



THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 



579 



earth as poorly paid as are the men who 
work on the railway mail trains. Cer- 
tainly there are no other Government 
employees so poorly paid. In other 
branches of the Government service 
there are men drawing salaries equiva- 
lent to $1,500 a year who couldn't 
hold the job of an $800 substitute three 
days. 

The average letter-carrier, who 
often hasn't an earning capacity in the 
business world of $50 a month, receives 
a salary that amounts to as much as 
that received by the man who does 
the health-destroying, nerve-racking 
work on the trains. 

The pay of the postal clerk ranges 
from $900 to $1,500 a year, the average 
being about $1,150 a year. After he 
has deducted from this the expense 
incident to travel, has paid for poor 
accommodations at cheap hotels, there 
is left for his wife and children a scant 
living. Laying by anything for old 
age, when the Government is through 
with him and has turned him adrift on 
the world, is out of the question. Each 
year the cost of living, like the danger 
incident to the work is increasing. 
Everything but the postal clerk's pay 
is going up, up, up. He receives the 
same pay now that he did twenty years 
ago, when a dollar bought more food, 
more clothing, more of all the neces- 
saries of life by 25 per cent, 
than it does today, when trust prices 
prevail. 

Until a few years ago the law made 
no provision for a postal clerk who was 
disabled or killed while on duty. The 
moment that his car took a plunge 
from a bridge to the bottom of some 
river, his pay stopped, provided he was 
killed. The Government did not even 
go to the expense of raising his muti- 
lated body, but left it where it went 
down for the fish to fight over. Now 
a different rule prevails. If a postal 
clerk is injured while on duty he is 
allowed his salary for a year. If, at 
the end of that time he is still disabled 
to such an extent that he cannot 
return to work, he is dropped from the 
rolls, and if the unfortunate clerk has 
no one upon whom he can rely for 



support, then it is "over the hills to the 
poorhouse." 

The law also provides now that in 
case of death from injuries received 
while on duty the clerk's legal repre- 
sentative shall be paid $1,000. That 
is a step, but a very short one, in the 
right direction. A human life at 
$1,000 per is pretty cheap. The legal 
representatives of the twelve postal 
clerks who were killed last year re- 
ceived $ 1 2,000; they ought to have 
had $60,000. 

But the point will probably be made 
that the clerk or his legal representative 
has a cause of action against the rail- 
road company which injured or killed 
him. Of course, if he can prove 
negligence on the part of the railroad's 
employees. If what the laws call an 
act of God, or some agency independ- 
ent of the railroad, is responsible for 
the wreck, the railroad company pays 
nothing. As the privilege of killing 
people is one of the few things that 
railroads are willing to leave to the 
Almighty, or someone else, when a 
few dollars are involved, they never 
fail to let the responsibility be placed 
where the "evidence" may show it 
belongs. 

A statement of the cost of operating 
the Railway Mail Service will contain 
some interesting figures. Last fiscal 
year the cost was as follows: 

Steamboat service $685,591.25 

Electric and cable car serv- 
ice 521,825.79 

Mail messenger service 1,221,903.25 

Special facilities on trunk 

lines 134,693.87 

Railway Mail Service 13,285,242.94 

Railway car and transpor- 
tation service 44,893,960.82 

Total.... $60,743,217.92 
This was a little less than one-third 
of the cost of maintaining the Post- 
office Department. The cost of the 
city free delivery, rural free delivery, 
star routes, carrying foreign mails, 
wagon service in cities, mail equip- 
ments and pneumatic tube service 
aggregated $53,500,000. 

The $13,285,242.94 cost of the Rail- 
way Mail Service includes the salaries 
of a general superintendent and his 



580 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



assistants, of eleven division superin- 
tendents and the assistants, clerks, etc., 
necessary to do the clerical work in the 
offices of eleven division superinten- 
dents and of 1 2, no postal clerks who 
ride the mail trains and handle the 
mails. 

The offices of the division super- 
intendents are located in Boston, New 
York, Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, 
Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, 
Cleveland, St. Paul and Fort Worth. 

The 12,1 10 postal clerks work under 
the immediate direction of these divi- 
sion superintendents. The Fifth, the 
Cincinnati Division, has supervision 
of the largest number of clerks — 2,000. 

Frequent efforts have been made 
the past few years to prevail upon Con- 
gress to pass legislation for the relief 
of postal clerks. It would seem that 
any fair-minded man, after due con- 
sideration, would agree: 

First, that postal clerks are not paid 
sufficient salaries. Second, that the 
railroads do not furnish such accom- 
modations as the Government pays 
for; and third, that some permanent 
provision should be made for old and 
disabled postal clerks and for the 
families of those who are killed in the 
service. 

Certainly, when the importance and 
character of the service performed are 
taken into consideration, the pay of 
the postal clerk would seem to be in- 
adequate. The Government ought not 
to pay for what it does not get, but it 
ought to pay for what it does get. 
It is not paying postal clerks for the 
service they are performing. The com- 
pensation of postal clerks can be in- 
creased indirectly by providing an 
allowance for expenses while on duty, 
or directly by adding to the salaries 
now paid. 

It is said that the Government pays 
a much higher rate for car and trans- 
portation service than that paid by 
the express companies. If that is 
true, why not compel the railroad com- 
panies to give what the Government 
pays^ for? Why should the postal 
clerk's car be given the most dangerous 
position in the train, so that if there 



is a wreck his chances of escape are 
the least of anyone on the train ? Isn't 
the life of the faithful and courageous 
man who serves the public so well as 
dear as that of the passenger in the 
Pullman palace car? If Uncle Sam 
pays for the highest class of service, 
why not make the railroads give in 
return what it pays for? 

A great many people become hys- 
terical when the pensioning of em- 
ployees in the civil service is mentioned. 
Little complaint is heard to the pay- 
ment by the Government of $145,000,- 
000 a year to ex-soldiers and their 
widows; the ex-soldiers are many, 
their name is legion and their votes 
count, hence the dollars are voted 
to the'm in cartloads, but a howl fol- 
lows any mention of pensioning em- 
ployees in the civil service. Indis- 
criminate pensioning of persons who 
have been in the civil service would 
unquestionably be wrong, and in fact, 
for the sake of argument, it might be 
admitted that, with the exception of 
postal clerks, no class of civil servants 
is entitled to pensions. But that the 
Government ought to provide for men 
who have been disabled or who have 
grown old in an extra-hazardous 
service — a service which of itself has a 
tendency to destroy the health of the 
man who performs it — needs no argu- 
ment. A man who has gone forth year 
after year, doing a dangerous duty, in 
order that the country might receive 
that which was almost as necessary as 
rain and sunshine, is entitled to as 
much consideration as the man who 
fights his country's battles. And the 
family of the man who goes down to 
death at his post of duty on a mail-car 
is entitled to as much from his Gov- 
ernment as the family of the man who 
is killed on the firing line. There may 
not be as much romantic glory in the 
one as there is in the other, but there 
is as much real service to the coun- 
try. 

The railroads are being paid $45,- 
000,000 annually for furnishing cars 
and for transporting the mails. It is 
estimated that a good part of this is 
loot. The lootage is placed by some 



THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE 



581 



at $10,000,000; by others it is put 
down as high as $30,000,000. What- 
ever it is, it represents the excess of 
what the service is really worth. The 
railroads do not earn it,, but they need 
it to pay the interest on watered bonds 
or dividends on watered stock, hence 
they go after it and they get it. 

One item of the forty-five million 
dollars is the charge for the use of the 
cars and apartments that hauled the 
mails. Last year this item was $5,509,- 
044.65. During the same period the 
railroads paid the Armours over $3,000 ,- 
000 mileage on refrigerator cars used 
in handling perishable freight, and 
permitted them to rob the people 
ruthlessly of many millions more in 



excessive refrigerating charges. For 
the use of each of the 3,838 cars and 
apartments carrying the mails the 
Government paid $1,435, an( i each 
car and apartment earned an average 
of over $10,000. By building and 
owning its own cars the Government 
could save a considerable part of the 
five and a half millions paid for use 
of the railroad companies' cars. By 
reducing the transportation charges to 
what they are actually worth millions 
of dollars more could be saved. 

One-fourth of the lowest amount 
estimated as going to the railroads in 
over-pay would be sufficient to pro- 
vide ample salaries and pensions for 
the men who handle the mails. 




In After Years 

BY G. E. W. 



IN after years we learn to know 
How futile were our hopes and fears, 
How trivial. And God doth show 
In after years 
How empty now and fraught with tears 
The gifts we prayed Him to bestow. 

Our lives speed on ; when darkness nears 
We hear His voice call soft and low, 

A voice that sounds to him who hears 
Like some great river's ceaseless flow, 
In after years. 




Still Standing Pat On The Old Spot 
Warren, in Boston Herald. 



John D.— " We should all know each other better. 
The Public—" I'd like to but I can't afford it." 
Bart, in Minneapolis Journal. 



\ 
JSjELtfRQPfAN WAR i^f^^ 




Russia-" 'Sense me, I just called to find out when I'm due for another outbreak." 
Donahey, in Cleveland Plain Dealer. 



582 



Alexander Hamilton Stephens 

BY ZENO I. FITZPATRICK, A.B., A.M. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STE- 
PHENS was born Feb. n, 
1812, in what was then Wilkes, 
but now Taliaferro County, Georgia, 
near the town of Crawfordsville. It is a 
remarkable coincidence that he and his 
most intimate friend, the illustrious 
Robert Toombs, should have been born 
in the same county. Mr. Stephens was 
born of . poor, but honest and highly 
respectable parents. He sprang from 
Irish stock and was fond of boasting 
of the fact. His parents named him 
simply " Alexander." He was prepared 
for college by an excellent teacher and 
worthy man by the name of Hamilton, 
and in appreciation of the interest taken 
in him by this preceptor he added 
Hamilton as his middle name. He was 
not named for Alexander Hamilton, 
the noted New York statesman and 
financier, who was killed in a duel with 
Aaron Burr, as many people imagine. 
Our subject belonged to a different 
school of politics from the distinguished 
New Yorker. 

Mr. Stephens's father was a poor man 
as to this world's goods. He was a 
humble but efficient teacher and owned 
a small farm, which upon his death 
was sold and invested as a patrimony 
for his children. Mr. Stephens often 
told his friends that his share in his 
father's estate was four hundred dollars. 
Years after his father's death Mr. 
Stephens bought the old homestead 
and was the proud possessor of it until 
his death. Mr. Stephens was always 
extremely proud of the rugged honesty 
and good standing of his family, and 
was ever sympathetic and affectionate 
to the humblest member, however 
distantly related to him. 

Mr. Stephens's first instructor was his 
583 



father; but then he was a mere lad. 
After his father's death the youth was 
in the habit of attending Sunday-school 
regularly and promptly. His cheerful 
disposition, his bright mind, his con- 
stant politeness to all and his frail and 
sickly body attracted everyone to 
him. These were the things that 
caused his father's friends to place him 
in Professor Hamilton's school. Later 
the same traits prompted some ladies, 
members of the Presbyterian Church 
at Augusta, to propose to give him a 
collegiate education at Franklin Col- 
lege, Athens, Ga., with the under- 
standing that he should, upon gradua- 
tion, become a Presbyterian minister. 
In college Mr. Stephens was a con- 
sistent member of the Presbyterian 
Church, as indeed he was all through 
life. After he had completed his 
sophomore year he decided that he could 
not become a minister of the gospel. 
He made up his mind at that early 
date to become a lawyer. Immediate- 
ly after this well-considered determina- 
tion he promptly notified the chari- 
table and kind-hearted ladies who had 
furnished the money to defray his 
expenses that he conscientiously felt 
he was not called to preach, and 
requested them to release him from 
his promise to do so, stating that he 
had used four hundred dollars of their 
money and declaring that he was ready 
to repay them, but frankly avowed 
that it would take every cent of his 
meagre patrimony to reimburse them. 
He informed them that he would be 
under many obligations to them if they 
would wait on him until he should 
complete his collegiate course, for the 
money. To this request they cheer- 
fully yielded. Mr. Stephens then se- 



584 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



cured the four hundred dollars, all his 
father left him, and by a most rigid 
economy and self-denial went on 
through the junior and senior classes and 
was graduated in the summer of 1832, 
sharing the first honor with William 
H. Crawford, Jr., son of Georgia's dis- 
tinguished lawyer and statesman, who 
was at one time candidate for the 
exalted office of President of the United 
States, and would have been elected, 
in the opinion of many, but for the 
unfortunate malady that seized him 
in the midst of a most active and 
heated campaign. 

Young Stephens was full of pride. 
After having been graduated and 
chosen valedictorian of his class, 
he was fearful that he could not 
appear on the rostrum to deliver 
his speech at Commencement, because 
he had exhausted his supply of funds 
and was unable to bedeck himself 
in the regulation broadcloth coat. 
But a well-disposed friend generously 
advanced the necessary cash, the 
proper garment was purchased and 
he spoke and won applause and fame 
as a youthful orator. 

Then the question uppermost in 
his thoughts was how speedily to gain 
money enough to cancel his debts to 
his benefactresses. He obtained the 
position of assistant teacher in an ex- 
cellent male school in the then small 
town of Madison, the capital of Morgan 
County, noted for its famous red hills, 
beautiful women and wealthy planters. 
Here we find the young pedagogue 
earnestly laboring to "teach the young 
idea how to shoot." While he gave 
entire satisfaction as an instructor and 
was received in the best Middle Georgia 
families and well treated by all, the 
drudgery and close confinement of the 
schoolroom was galling to him in the 
extreme, and all the rest of his life he 
confessed to his friends that existence 
in those dreary days was a burden and 
that he was very unhappy. 

After joyfully leaving Madison, 
young Stephens, through the inter- 
vention of his classmates, the young 
Lecontes, obtained a situation in the 
family of their father, a ripe scholar 



himself, and a large planter and owner 
of many slaves in Liberty County. 
Here, with congenial spirits and more 
favorable environment, Mr. Stephens 
was happy. Here, too, he did splendid 
work in preparing the young sons of Mr. 
Leconte for college. One of these was 
the justly celebrated Joseph H. Le- 
conte, the eminent college professor 
and the author of a well-known and 
much used work on geology. Mr. 
Stephens was ever proud of the 
splendid achievements in the world of 
letters of his former pupil. The writer, 
while traveling in California in 1899, 
met this lovable and gentle scholar at 
the University of California at Berke- 
ley, not far out from San Francisco. 
He informed the writer that he had 
always been as proud of his famous 
preceptor as the latter could possibly 
have been of him. He spoke in the 
highest terms of praise of Mr. Ste- 
phens's character and great intellect 
and ability, and declared very em- 
phatically that he had always regarded 
Mr. Stephens as one of America's 
greatest and safest statesmen, and 
sagely remarked that the South had 
greatly erred in not following his ad- 
vice concerning Secession and the Civil 
War. 

We next find young Stephens a 
law student. He borrowed books from 
Mr. Quinea O'Neal, at that time or- 
dinary of the new County of Taliaferro, 
and without the aid of any instructor 
studied the dusty legal volumes and 
in the almost incredible space of six 
weeks was ready to be admitted to the 
bar after having passed a fine ex- 
amination in open court with .that 
mighty Georgia jurist, Joseph H. 
Lumpkin, as a member of the Com- 
mittee on Examination. Judge Lump- 
kin congratulated him most heartily 
and predicted for him success in his 
chosen profession. Mr. Stephens was 
ever grateful to his noble friend, Mr. 
O'Neal, for the use of the county's law 
books, and afterward received him in 
old age and hoary locks and tottering 
steps as an honored permanent guest in 
his home at Liberty Hall, always 
reverently addressing him as " Par- 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS 



585 



son.'' He treated him as a father, 
furnishing him a comfortable room 
and board at his table, as well as 
suitable clothing and even tobacco. 
Very soon after becoming a lawyer 
Mr. Stephens was elected to the legis- 
lature, having defeated in a warm 
political contest a Mr. Janes, an in- 
fluential and wealthy planter. Mr. 
Stephens at once took a high stand as 
a legislator, and among many other 
useful measures strenuously advocated 
the policy of state aid to Wesleyan 
College, the first institution for the 
higher education of females in the 
world. He also took a bold and ag- 
gressive stand for the building by the 
state of that magnificent property still 
owned by Georgia, the Western & 
Atlantic Railroad, from Atlanta to 
Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Stephens grew rapidly in reputation 
as an able lawyer, wise politician and 
safe man generally. He soon became 
the idol of the people of the old Eighth 
Congressional District, and in 1842 he 
was elected as a Whig to Congress. 
At once he took an active part in the 
proceedings of the House and was 
recognized as an admirable debater 
and eloquent orator, and became a 
leader upon the floor. He was con- 
tinuously a member of the House of 
Representatives until the year 1859, 
when he voluntarily retired to private 
life at Liberty Hall, his home, so well 
named and known, where he was 
wont to dispense open-handed hos- 
pitality. His home at Crawfordsville, 
in a large grove of grand oaks, was for 
many, many years the Mecca toward 
which all, the rich and poor, the high 
and low, bent their steps; some to 
learn wisdom at his feet, and others to 
get needed rest and food. He always 
kept a tramp's room. So here could 
often be seen at his hospitable board 
the proud, aristocratic, imperial 
Toombs, and the poor, despised wan- 
derer, both, in far different ways, en- 
joying their sojourn at "Little Aleck's." 

When Mr. Stephens left Congress 
in the fifties, he told his friends that 
he had heard the rumblings of the com- 
ing storm, that he saw the wreck ahead, 



and that he had simply alighted from 
the onrushing fury at the first and 
most convenient station. He had 
quitted his beloved Whig Party, and 
united with the Democratic Party, 
which he had so often and fiercely as- 
sailed. When twitted about this he 
would laughingly say that he had 
brought the Democrats to him. While 
Little Aleck represented the old Eighth 
District in Congress, he was greatly 
loved by the voters, and became ab- 
solutely invincible. He was never 
defeated before the people for any 
office he ever asked of them. This 
writer heard him say more than once 
that Ben Hill and other great orators 
and debaters would meet him on the 
stump for the avowed purpose of de- 
feating him and choosing another in 
his place, and he always was returned 
to Congress by increased majorities. 
For the purpose of showing how great 
a lawyer he was, we will tell how Mr. 
Stephens managed two noted cases in 
court, the one on the criminal side, and 
the other on the civil. 

The first was the much talked of case 
of the State versus Willet, and was 
tried in Greene Superior Court in the 
early fifties. Judge Thomas G. Law- 
son, of Eatonton, himself a wonder- 
fully strong lawyer, described this 
celebrated case in detail to the writer. 
Lawson was then at Mercer University 
in Penfield, Greene County. So were 
young Willet, a brother of one of the 
teachers of that excellent institution of 
learning, Professor Joseph E. Willet, 
and a young man named Janes. Wil- 
let was poor and possessed no worldly 
goods, while Janes was a member of 
that well-known and very wealthy 
family whose various members re- 
sided in their ante-bellum palaces 
amid their broad acres and countless 
slaves. Willet and Janes were class- 
mates and bosom friends. They were 
as Damon and Pythias, boon compan- 
ions. They had an engagement to call 
to see two young ladies together. 
Late in the afternoon before the time 
for this visit they had a game of 
marbles, and for some reason had a 
boyish quarrel and then a fight. 



586 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Young Willet drew a penknife and 
stabbed Janes, killing him instantly. 
The Janeses, elder brothers, father and 
uncles of the dead boy, had Willet put 
in jail and vowed that they would have 
him convicted and executed, if money 
could do it. They employed, my recol- 
lection is, R. Toombs, F. H. Cone and 
Howell Cobb, and earnestly endeavored 
to get into this splendid array of legal 
talent Mr. Stephens, but he had made 
a resolution not to appear against any 
man on trial for life. The defense had 
next to no money and had got only 
one lawyer, then a youthful limb of the 
law, Augustus Reese, of Madison. 
Friends visited Willet in jail and urged 
him to employ other and more eminent 
counsel. His invariable reply was that 
he had no money. His brother, Pro- 
fessor Willet, finally decided to see Mr. 
Stephens. He told him of his young 
brother's unfortunate predicament, 
and telling him they had but little 
money, begged him to assist Reese. 
Stephens cared nothing for money, but 
in reality he was anxious to appear in 
defense of that poor boy and to 
measure strength with his brother 
giants engaged for the prosecution. 
Judge Lawson said the whole county 
was wild over the cese. The college 
faculty brought the entire student 
body into the chapel and said that 
they positively forbade any of the 
students attending the trial except the 
witnesses who had to go. But the 
boys were on fire to be present at the 
trial of their friend and fellow -student. 
They were threatened with expulsion 
from college if they should go. They 
had an independent meeting of their 
own and resolved solemnly to go in a 
solid body, knowing that the authorities 
could not afford to expel the whole 
school. So they all to a man went day 
after day for the solid week which the 
trial occupied. Judge Lawson said that 
this was the grandest legal battle that he 
ever saw or ever expected to see. In 
some way, it is needless to say how, Mr. 
Stephens got the conclusion. Reese 
spoke first for the defense and made a 
good speech. Then came the erudite 
and brainy Cone, who tore Reese's 



argument into shreds. When he con- 
cluded his mighty effort Lawson said 
things looked dark and foreboding for 
the boy prisoner at the bar. Then 
spoke Howell Cobb, and he made a 
masterly and terribly strong speech, 
and all imagined they could see the 
fatal rope around the poor boy's neck. 
Then the fiery and thundering Toombs 
took his stand before the jury and paint- 
ed in words that burned the base in- 
gratitude of poor Willet, who had wil- 
fully murdered his friend and daily com- 
panion, who had lavished his money 
freely upon him, and had times in- 
numerable lent him his fine horse and 
buggy to take young ladies to ride, and 
had shown him many similar favors. 
When the powerful orator and mar- 
velous lawyer concluded everyone 
saw poor Willet 's body dangling in 
the air between heaven and earth. 
Toombs finished about three o'clock on 
Thursday. Mr. Stephens arose and, 
telling the presiding judge that he was 
physically tired, requested him to ad- 
journ for the day. This was done. 
That afternoon and night the case was 
the sole theme of conversation. The 
general opinion was that Little Aleck, 
with all his eloquence and power with 
a jury, would be unable to stem the 
tide seemingly about to overwhelm his 
unfortunate client. For the entire week 
the court had been meeting at an unus- 
ually early hour. The following day 
Stephens concluded for the defense. 
The matchless orator and advocate 
soon had the judge, jury and immense 
throng completely under the spell of his 
resistless eloquence. He showed how 
the boys had been friends and loved 
each other — that Willet could not pos- 
sibly have had malice; that he had in 
a sudden fit of passion struck his be- 
loved associate with a small knife, not 
intending to do him bodily hurt, but 
had most unfortunately slain him. He 
pictured the prisoner as penniless — 
without influential friends. He vivid- 
ly portrayed the wealth and great 
power and influence of the large Janes 
family; he complimented the dis- 
tinguished lawyers on the other side for 
their able speeches, but said that all 






ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS 



587 



were hounding the poor boy to death. 
Then Mr. Stephens described graphic- 
ally how prisoners in olden times were 
accustomed to flee for their lives to the 
cities, once within whose protecting 
walls they were safe from all harm. 
The sympathetic man and con- 
vincing lawyer concluded with words 
like these: "Gentlemen of the Jury, 
here comes the boy running for his very 
life, hotly pursued by a horde of angry 
bloodthirsty and wealthy relatives 
of the lamented dead youth, and by 
an array of lawyers unsurpassed m the 
country for eloquence and power. 
This fleeing prisoner, gentlemen, is 
rushing with headlong speed for the 
City of Refuge, and I need not tell you 
that you twelve constitute that blessed 
asylum of safety." 

The jury, after receiving the charge 
of his Honor, retired and in a few 
minutes returned the verdict: "We, 
the Jury, find the prisoner not guilty." 

The other case, a civil one, was the 
important will case of DuPre,of Ogle- 
thorpe County. This will was contested 
on the ground that it did not comply 
with the requirements of the law. It 
was conceded by all that the testator 
had the will drawn up as he wished it ; 
that he himself signed it and the three 
necessary witnesses signed. But it 
was said by some that, before DuPre 
signed, one of the witnesses went into 
an adjoining room just for a moment 
to get a drink of water. When he 
returned DuPre remarked to him that 
he had signed, and the witness replied 
that he knew his handwriting, and 
he himself then signed. The will was 
admitted to be regular and drawn up 
according to law with but one impedi- 
ment, the testator and all the witnesses 
had not signed in the presence of each 
other. This, then, was the point in con- 
troversy. Gen. Robert Toombs and 
Hon. B. H. Hill were employed to 
break the will, and Judge Linton Ste- 
phens was retained to defend it. Some 
of the witnesses in court swore positive- 
ly that all the witnesses to the will had 
signed in each other's presence, while 
other court witnesses swore that the 
witness who left the room for water 



had not seen the others sign. This 
apparently trivial matter was the 
issue in this will case involving three 
hundred thousand dollars. The case 
had been tried two or three times in 
the Superior and Supreme Courts, 
when Judge Linton Stephens died. 
At that time Alexander H. Stephens 
was dreadfully afflicted with rheu- 
matism and had to go around on 
crutches. He was not engaged in 
the practice of law at all, but Judge 
Stephens's widow, after frequent appeals 
to him, prevailed upon him to take 
the place of her deceased husband in 
the case. Thus it came about that 
Little Aleck, as the people of Geor- 
gia affectionately called him, after 
many years' absence from the court- 
house, was again pressed into service 
as a lawyer to represent the interests 
of his beloved brother's widow and 
orphan children. It must have been a 
sight to the good people of Lexington 
and Oglethorpe County generally to 
behold their favorite orator, lawyer 
and statesman, slowly and painfully 
hobbling up the court-house steps on 
those crutches to win a fee for his 
loved ones! We can see them now, 
wild with delight over his reappearance 
among them after so prolonged an 
absence. But the old "warhorse," 
once again in the arena of his former 
triumphs, was eager for his last legal 
battle with Toombs and Hill, foes 
worthy of any man's steel. The case 
was gone over again and all three of 
the great lawyers, of course, made able 
arguments and eloquent appeals. But 
we are concerned more particularly 
with Mr. Stephens's management of 
the case. We have been reliably 
informed that he made a great speech 
and concluded by frankly admitting 
that the testimony of the witnesses was 
conflicting, then raising his shrill voice 
to a high pitch he exclaimed: "Gen- 
tlemen of the Jury, after mature con- 
sideration of this case, I give it to 
you as my deliberate and honest opin- 
ion, both as a lawyer and as a man 
that DuPre and all the witnesses 
signed that will in accordance with 
the law." 



588 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



The jury brought in their verdict, 
going with "Little Aleck" and sus- 
taining the will. 

This writer has traveled all over 
the United States, from Boston to 
San Francisco, and wherever he has 
been, men, upon learning that he was 
from Georgia, would say that his 
state had produced many great states- 
men, but they considered Mr. Stephens 
the state's wisest and safest leader. 
They would usually remark in effect 
that Stephens's speech against Seces- 
sion was almost like prophecy. It 
may be said now that everybody sees 
the wisdom of Stephens's position 
when he declared that the South had 
the right to secede, but it was inex- 
pedient. He contended that the 
North would overpower the South 
because it had more men, more money, 
a better navy, and, above all, the 
South had the whole world against her 
on account of slavery. Again Stephens 
showed his statesmanship when he 
so zealously urged his people to remain 
in the Union which they had helped 
to form, and fight, if fight they must, 
under the old flag. All can readily 
see now that if this course had been 
adopted, many friends of the South 
in the North, and especially in the 
West, would not have fought against 
her. The North had been taught 
by Webster and others to believe in 
the Union, just as the South had been 
prepared by Calhoun and his allies 
to believe in State Rights. 

Another suggestion by Stephens 
was the very essence of wisdom and fore- 
sight , and that was that the South should 
call upon her patriotic sons, the wealthy 
planters, to turn over their cotton to 
the Confederate Government and take 
its obligation to pay them in the future. 
Then England, which was clamoring 
for cotton, was to be informed that it 
was owned by the Government and 
she could get it by coming after it. 
England would have sent her ships 
accompanied by gunboats for this 
cotton. Stephens's plan was to sell 
the cotton, put the proceeds in the 
Bank of England, and buy a navy. 
He also advised, in the beginning of 



the war, that able-bodied negroes be 
drafted into the army, and officered 
by white men and given their freedom. 
He said the North would use them thus 
if the South did not. This was done 
by the North. The position taken 
by Stephens just prior to the great 
Civil War made him very popular at 
the North, which regarded him as the 
South's ablest statesman. But later, 
when he had followed his state, after 
it had disregarded his advice, and had 
become second officer in the newly 
established Government, the North 
thought he had repudiated his own 
position and thus showed weakness. 
Gen. R. E. Lee acted exactly like 
Stephens. All their lives these dis- 
tinguished men had been taught, and 
wisely taught, to give their allegiance 
to their states. Mr. Stephens, during 
the war, became unpopular in the 
South. Many thought he had antag- 
onized the Government at Richmond, 
and, consequently, was not a loyal 
man and true patriot. He was sharply 
censured for quitting the capital and 
repairing to his home at Crawford s- 
ville. He said many times to the 
writer that the Richmond authorities 
would pay no attention to any sugges- 
tion from him, and as he was not 
chosen chief, his self-respect prevented 
him from remaining among those who 
would not listen to him, and so he went 
home to Georgia and let the adminis- 
tration have its own way, unmolested 
by him. 

Much has been said about the cele- 
brated Hampton Roads conference 
between President Lincoln et al., and 
Vice-President Stephens et al. Just 
what was said and done will be a sub- 
ject of controversy for many years. 

This writer, honestly endeavoring to 
give a fair, unbiased and truthful 
sketch of his old teacher, warm personal 
friend and favorite statesman, delib- 
erately makes the following statement 
concerning this question, and he bases 
it absolutely and entirely upon various 
talks with Mr. Stephens at Liberty 
Hall. Mr. Stephens and his fellow- 
commissioners had no authority 
from the Richmond Government to 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS 



589 



act for the Confederacy. President 
Jefferson Davis wished them to confer 
with Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward and 
ascertain what might be done. Mr. 
Stephens repeated to me many times 
that Mr. Lincoln, who had served in 
Congress many years with him, and who 
was his friend, asked him at the very 
beginning: "What authority from 
Jefferson Davis have you to do some- 
thing at this meeting?" Mr. Stephens 
said that he had to tell him he had no 
authority at all. Then Lincoln politely 
told him that his mission amounted 
to nothing, and that he had as well 
stayed at home. The impression made 
upon the writer during a stay of eight 
months as a boarder at Mr. Stephens's 
home, famous Liberty Hall, was that 
President Davis, while himself a great 
statesman, was somewhat jealous of 
Stephens, and that was the true reason 
why Mr. Davis would never take any 
kind of advice from him, although 
the people had made him second in 
office, and, furthermore, Davis was 
unwilling for Stephens in that confer- 
ence to make any reputation as the 
man to bring about a cessation of war. 
This is a mere fraction of what the 
writer could say of what Stephens 
told. Mr. Stephens said that old 
Abe Lincoln, here as elsewhere, had 
to get off his jokes. It was very cold 
when Mr. Stephens and his party 
boarded Lincoln's boat. Mr. Stephens 
had on two overcoats. Mr. Lincoln's 
warm, comfortable room soon caused 
Stephens to take off his greatcoat, 
whereupon Lincoln smiled and winked 
at Seward. By and bye Stephens took 
off the second coat, and Lincoln could 
restrain himself no longer, but laugh- 
ingly said that Stephens was the 
smallest nubbin for so many shucks 
that he ever saw. At another time 
Stephens said that he, in arguing some 
point, referred to an old English author- 
ity in the time of King Charles the 
First. Lincoln, interrupting him, told 
him if he wished to discuss English 
history he must address his words to 
William L. Seward, that he himself 
knew next to nothing about it, and 



in fact, all he knew about Charles the 
First was that he had been informed 
that Charles lost his head. In passing, 
it may be told that Stephens had a 
high admiration and personal esteem 
for Mr. Lincoln. He often told us 
that Lincoln was a kindly disposed 
man, a loyal friend, a great statesman 
and a true patriot from his view point. 
One of the finest traits in the 
character of Aleck Stephens was his 
great love and devotion to his half- 
brother, Linton Stephens. The older 
brother was eleven years the senior of 
the younger. Aleck had become quite 
prominent and was making money 
when Linton became large enough to 
attend school. He took great pains 
in having Linton properly prepared 
for college. While Linton was at 
Franklin College it was Aleck's custom 
to write to him almost daily for the 
purpose of encouraging him in the 
pursuit of knowledge and in aiding 
him in his more difficult studies. After 
Linton was graduated at Athens Mr. 
Stephens secured the services of the 
celebrated jurist and scholar, Judge 
Storey, as Linton's instructor in law. 
He later was graduated in law at the 
University of Virginia. Linton was 
then taken into partnership with his 
brother and soon became an able 
lawyer. At a comparatively early age 
he was appointed Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the State by 
Governor J. E. Brown, and made an 
enviable reputation on the bench. 
Mr. Stephens, having educated Judge 
Stephens, looked upon him as much 
a son as brother, and was ever very 
proud of him. The two Stephenses and 
Gen. Robert Toombs were as close 
and intimate as friends could be. The 
general was ever ready to do anything 
in his power for either. The two 
brothers loved the great and fiery old 
statesman with a devotion rarely 
seen. 

They were loyal to him upon all occa- 
sions. Woe be unto that person who 
said aught against Toombs to either 
of the brothers! Such a one would 
have a fight upon his hands. 



To be Concluded. 



Viroqua, Wis. 
Watson's Magazine, New York. 

I see it is one of the talks of the country and in 
your Magazine to amend the Constitution of the 
United States so as to elect senators by ballot of 
the people. It appears to be considered that the 
United States Senate is in the way — that a two- 
thirds majority of that body is needed and cannot 
be had. This may be true, but I notice the present 
Constitution provides that the Congress, " two- 
thirds of both Houses, may propose amendments." 
Now why does not this mean two-thirds of both 
Houses on joint ballot? In that case the people 
can elect representatives enough to overpower the 
Senate vote if it is combined against the amend- 
ment. The Constitution does not say two-thirds 
of each House. I think two-thirds of both Houses 
means two-thirds of the Congress without regard 
to the majority of either House. Am I not correct ? 

I am a farmer and may not have correct ideas 
of law or logic. 

ANSWER 

The suggestion which you make as to the 
meaning of the Constitution when it says 
"two-thirds of both Houses of Congress" is 
very interesting. The construction hereto- 
fore placed upon that language has been that 
it meant both Houses acting in their separate 
capacities as two different legislative Houses. 
My own opinion is that this construction is in 
accordance with the intention of the framers 
of the Constitution, for the reason that 
amendments to the Constitution are in the 
nature of legislation, and all legislation was 
intended by the framers of the Constitution 
to be passed by the two Houses in their sepa- 
rate capacities. 

The truth is that our forefathers distrusted 
the people, and they tried in every way, con- 
sistent with the concealment of their pur- 
pose, to make their distrust of the people 
effective. 



Americus, Ga 
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

My DearSir. Will you please inform me, through 
the columns of your Magazine, the difference in 
belief between the Democratic and the Populist 
parties? 

I have had your Magazine for some time, and 
have learned that it is the best one I have ever 
read. 

The good you are doing through the medium of 
your Magazine cannot be estimated. 

ANSWER 

The question propounded in the above 
letter puts me where Waller is supposed to 
have had the hen. It would be easy for me 
590 



or anyone else to tell the difference between 
the Populist Party and the Democratic 
Party if I knew for certain what the Demo- 
cratic Party is. The People's Party was 
organized in 1891 and it has stood for the 
same purpose ever since. Before it had been 
organized an educational movement had 
preceded it. The Farmers' Alliance had 
conducted this educational movement among 
the country people, the Knights of Labor 
had conducted it among the city people. 
In the country, the Farmers' Alliance move- 
ment was almost entirely composed of those 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the 
cities, the Knights of Labor movement was 
conducted almost exclusively by the wage- 
earners, employed in all of the various de- 
partments of mechanical industry. After 
years and years of educational work, the 
leaders of the Farmers' Alliance and of the 
Knights of Labor came together and agreed 
upon a joint movement against special 
privileges as represented by modern capital- 
ism. Thus, the People's Party had its 
origin in an educational movement, which, 
from the beginning, relied upon its appeal 
to the intelligence of the voter. Every 
member of the Farmers' Alliance movement 
knew what he wanted, and why he wanted it. 
The creed of the Farmers' Alliance was the 
same everywhere. In like manner, the 
Knights of Labor had its invariable plea, 
and every member of the army of wage- 
earners who joined the Knights of Labor 
had an intelligent purpose in doing so. 
The purpose of the Knight of Labor in 
the South was the same as that which 
actuated his comrade in the North, East 
and West. Consequently the Populist 
movement grew out of the uniformity in 
creed and uniformity of purpose among all of 
its members. The Republican Party, in its 
origin, was practically as coherent as the 
People's Party. A great educational reform 
movement preceded the political organization 
and when a citizen announced himself a 
Republican everybody knew what he stood 
for. Even now, when a citizen announces 
himself as a Republican, it can be safely 
assumed, in most instances, that he stands 
for the tariff, for national banks of issue, for 
the gold standard, for a large navy and 
standing army, for a liberal expenditure of 
public money for Internal Improvements, 
for Imperialism — that is to say, for the hold- 
ing by the United States of a colonial empire 



EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 



591 



wherein the people are allowed no voice in 
their own government. 

Now, when we get to the Democrats, we 
are at sea. There is no coherence of creed 
or purpose. There is nobody who has 
authority to say what is orthodox. On 
the tariff, the members of the Democratic 
Party range all the way from approval of 
the McKinley and Dingley schedules down 
to absolute free trade. 

On the question of finance, there is the 
same difference among Democrats. On the 
question of the navy and the army, the 
colonial possessions, the national banking 
system and Internal Improvements there 
is the same variation in creed and pur- 
pose. An Eastern Democrat is, in all 
essential respects, a Republican. The late 
Judge Parker was never able to tell anybody 
wherein he differed from Mr. Roosevelt on 
any question of governmental policy. If 
Mr. Parker and Mr. Cleveland represent 
orthodox Democracy, I would say that there 
are no differences between the Democratic 
Party and the Republican Party that are 
worth a contest. We do not need two 
parties who hold the same purposes and the 
same policies. Therefore, if Democracy is 
properly expounded by such men as Parker, 
Ryan, Cleveland, we had just as well dis- 
pense with the cost and trouble of a Presi- 
dential campaign. On the other hand, if 
the Democratic Party is represented by 
W. J. Bryan, and Mr. Bryan should succeed 
in getting his ideas adopted by the Demo- 
cratic convention in 1908, then it might be 
that there would be no very great difference 
of purpose between the Democratic Party 
and the People's Party. Mr. Bryan has 
declared that he is more radical now than he 
was in 1896. He has not yet specified, so that 
we may know what he means by radicalism. 
He has declared himself in favor of the gov- 
ernmental ownership of railroads, but the 
plan which he proposes is absolutely imprac- 
ticable and perhaps destructive of the objects 
aimed at by those who advocate public 
ownership of public utilities. 

To say that the Federal Government shall 
own the trunk lines, while the State Govern- 
ment owns the local lines is, in my judgment, 
mere nonsense. At the present time there 
is no such thing as a local railroad. No- 
where can you disarrange local lines w ithout 
disturbing the traffic system. 

In short, I cannot tell our correspondent 
what the difference is between the Populist 
and the Democratic parties because nobody 
knows what the Democratic Party is to 
stand for in the next election. 



Madison, Ark. 
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

Dear Sir: Please answer this in your August 
or September number of Watson's Magazine. 

Some time past a few moneyed men of Forrest 
City, Ark., bought from the Levee Board a 
good deal of land, in the Levee district, which, 
from what I can learn, needs draining, and our 



congressman, Mr. Macon, is advocating an ap- 
propriation by the Government to drain this land 
for a few who own it. No one but just a few 
would be benefited by the appropriation, for just 
a few own the majority of the land in the Levee 
district, and they are men who are considered 
rich, but not as rich as John D. 

Now would it be right to take the people's 
money and use it to benefit three or four men 
just because they want the land drained? This 
is what I want you to answer. What if I bought, 
say, a lake in the woods and wanted to build a 
concrete pier in it large enough for a brick dwelling- 
house ? Just because I owned it would it be 
right for the Government to appropriate to me 
four or five hundred thousand dollars to satisfy 
my wants? Of course they pay taxes, but I do, 
too, and just because they are rich is no reason 
why they should be honored any more than I 
was or would be. Is it right? 

Yet I have sense enough to know a man who 
has the coin in the bank has more free rights than 
one that hasn't a one-cent piece. 1 am under the 
impression Mr. Macon will lose a good many 
friends and votes on that drainage question. 
Now if the land was in blocks of 40s or 50s, 
owned by the majority of the population of 
the county and state, it would be different. 

ANSWER 

It may be that Mr. Macon will secure an 
appropriation which, in its effect, will drain 
the land of private landowners, but if he 
does, he will have to cover up his design in 
such a way as to disguise it. Congress does 
not appropriate money for the improvement 
of private property. Necessarily, however, 
private property is frequently benefited by 
public improvements which the Government 
makes for its purposes. This is unavoidable. 
Where the appropriation is made with an 
eye single to public benefits, no one can 
justly complain if incidental benefits are 
derived from this public improvement by 
private landowners. It is only upon the 
theory that the entire Republic is benefited 
by the improvements made upon rivers and 
harbors, public buildings and grounds, that 
the Government takes the money of the 
taxpayers and expends it upon court-houses, 
post-office buildings, custom houses, dock- 
yards, harbors, rivers, levee embankments, 
harbor dredging, etc. 

It very often happens, of course, that 
there is a private scheme within the public 
scheme, and that those favored individuals 
who have what is called a "pull" are able 
to influence the appropriation of public 
money in such a way as directly to improve 
private property. So far as I know, 
however, no public funds have ever been 
spent to drain the lands of a private cor- 
poration or a private individual ; and if Mr. 
Macon succeeds in doing this, as you appre- 
hend, he will hear from it at some future 
election, after the people of his district get on 
to the facts. 



Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

I have read every number of Watson's Maga- 
zine and am at times puzzled to know where you 
get some of the many things you publish. 



592 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



The greatest surprise was in your August num- 
ber, on page 290, when you say in answer to Nash- 
ville, Ark.: "The silver dollar, irrespective of the 
price of crude silver, has always been worth a 
dollar for the simple reason that the law makes it 
a good dollar in payment of all debts public and 
private. In law a silver dollar does all that a gold 
dollar will do, hence they are legal equals." 

These two propositions are astonishing for the 
reason that they give silver more than any other 
man that I know claims for it. 

Is it not a fact that the demonetization act of 
1873 took from the gold dollar its legal tender 
qualities, and is it not a fact that no law enacted 
since by Congress has ever restored that legal ten- 
der quality? 

The Sherman purchasing act did not do it; 
neither did the repeal of the Sherman purchasing 
act. I may not have all the data at hand, but I 
know of no other silver legislation since the act of 
1873. 

Should you have any other acts of Congress on 
the subject I would be pleased to have you pub- 
lish it together with the true Sherman acts. 
Respectfully, 



ANSWER 

The statement in the Magazine to which 
you refer is strictly accurate. It is not a 
fact that the law of 1873 or the law of any 
other year took the legal tender quality 
away from the gold dollar. The act of 1873 
dropped the silver dollar from the list of 
coins, but in a short while the trick was dis- 
covered and the silver dollar was restored 
to its place in our coinage. I mean, of 
course, the standard silver dollar, and not 
the trade dollar. The silver dollar which 
is now in circulation was absolutely full 
legal tender under the law just as gold dol- 
lars are, and the number of them was 
largely increased last year in the manner 
stated in the Magazine. The Act of Con- 
gress passed during McKinley's adminis- 
tration requires the Government to maintain 
the gold standard. Consequently, it has 
been the practice of the Secretary and 
Treasurer to exchange gold dollars for any 
other kind of money which might be pre- 
sented for exchange or redemption. He 
even redeems silver dollars with gold dol- 
lars. Those that believe in the Populist 
theory of finance think all this very absurd. 
The swapping of one dollar for another 
dollar seems to be mere child's play when 
we remember that any one of the various 
kinds of dollars would not be a dollar if it 
were not for the legal tender quality con- 
ferred upon them by law. The amount of 
gold in the gold dollar would not be at a 
valuation of 100 cents were it not for the 
stamp of the Government, and the legal 
tender law which is back of the stamp. If 
you want to make a test of this proposition 
at some time, take a $20 gold piece and melt 
it. Then take the gold and carry it into the 
market and experiment upon the difference 
between what you can do with twenty silver 
dollars and the lump of gold. The experi- 
ment will open your eyes to many things. 



Ludowici, Ga. 
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

Dear Sir: You will oblige me by naming the 
Governors of Georgia, since 1849 to the present 
time, in the next issue of your Magazine. Inas- 
much as I am a subscriber to your Magazine, 
I take pleasure in saying it is the* grandest piece 
of literature I have ever read. 



ANSWER 

1789, George Walton; 1790, Edward Tel- 
fair; 1793, George Matthews; 1796, Jared 
Irwin; 1798, James Jackson; 1801, David 
Emanuel; 1801, Josiah Tattnall; 1802, John 
Milledge; 1806, Jared Irwin; 1809, David B. 
Mitchell; 181 3, Peter Early; 1815, David B. 
Mitchell; 181 7, William Rabun; 181 9, Mat- 
thew Talbot; 1819, John Clark; 1823, 
George M. Troup; 1827, John Forsyth; 1829, 
George R. Gilmer; 1831, William Lampkin ; 
1835, William Schley; 1837, George R. Gil- 
mer; 1839, Charles J. McDonald; 1843, 
George W. Crawford; 1847, George W. B. 
Towns; 1851, Howell Cobb; 1853, Herschel 
V. Johnson; 1857, Joseph E. Brown; 1865, 
James Johnson; 1865, Charles J. Jenkins; 
1867, Gen. T. H. Ruger; 1868, Rufus B. 
Bullock; 1872, James Milton Smith; 1877, 
Alfred H. Colquit; 1882, Alexander H. 
Stephens; 1883, Henry B. McDaniel; 1886, 
John B. Gordon; 1890, William J. Northern; 
1894, William Y. Atkinson; 1898, Allen D. 
Candler; 1902, Joseph M. Terrell. 

Welch, I. T. 
Editor Watson's Magazine, New York, A T . Y. 

Dear Sir: Moved by the information in the 
June number of your Magazine that the national 
banks had received a deposit loan of $66,000,000 
from the Secretary of the United States Treasury 
upon the security of "Chicago Sanitary Bonds," 
and said $66,000,000 does not draw any interest 
whatever, I wrote to the honorable Secretary 
of the Treasury to borrow $500 upon real estate 
first mortgage on eighty acres of land located here 
in Indian Territory with or without low rate of 
interest for a period of time not to exceed five 
years. 1 herewith inclose his reply, dated June 
30, 1906. To which I responded and asked him 
to quote me the law authorizing him as Secretary 
of the Treasury to loan public funds to national 
banks or give the name of said act and the section 
number. 

I received letter dated July 17, 1906. Now 
will you please quote Section 5153 of Revised 
Statutes of United States in " Educational De- 
partment " of your Magazine and give your opinion 
on same? If you should desire my letters to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, I will supply copy 
of same, as I preserved copy at time of writing him. 

I approve of your suggested platform so far 
as I am informed. But plank number 2 I con- 
fess I do not understand sufficiently to express 
an opinion for or against. 

With best wishes for success, 

P. S. — Of course I had not any idea I could 
borrow any money, but why I should not be on an 
equality with national banks is the question. 

Treasury Department, 
Washington, June 30, 1906. 
Dear Sir. 

There is no authority in the Secretary of the 



EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 



593 



Treasury to make public loans except with the 
regular fiscal agents of the Government, to wit : 
national banks. Personally, I am not able 
to make the loan you speak of, and I do not know 
of anyone engaged in the loan business in Indian 
Territory. I think if you secure it at all, it will 
needs be from some local people who may be 
engaged in that business. I am sorry that I 
cannot accommodate you. 

Yours very truly, 

L. M. Shaw. 
Treasury Department, 
Office of the Secretary, 
Washington, July 17, 1906. 
Sir: 

In reply to your letter of the 6th inst., you 
are informed that the authority of law under 
which the Secretary of the Treasury designates 
national banks as depositaries of public moneys 
and deposits moneys therewith is contained in 
Section 5153, Revised Statutes of the United 
States. 

Respectfullv, 

C. H. Keep, 
Assistant Secretary. 

ANSWER 

The statute to which you refer authorizes 
the secretary and the treasurer to deposit 



public funds in certain national banks. 
These deposits are, for all practical purposes, 
loans of public money to private corpora- 
tions. In this way the favored national 
banks enjoy the perpetual use of more than 
S6o,ooo,ooo belonging to the American 
people. No interest whatever is paid for 
the use of this money. For some years the 
amount has not been less than $50,000,000. 
Consequently, the Government of the 
United States has confiscated at least $50,- 
000,000 belonging to all the people and 
has given it to the favored few who run 
the national banks which the Government 
has selected as its pets. Of course, the 
Government could withdraw the money 
if it chose to do so, but inasmuch as the 
Government does not choose to do so, but 
allows that huge sum of money to remain 
in the hands of the pet banks from year to 
year, the practical effect is to take away 
the property of one class of citizens and 
to give it to another class. Both old parties 
stand committed to this vicious and illegal 
practice. 



The Coronation 

BY EUGENE C. DOLSON 



RED leaves are fluttering down the forest ways; 
And silence deep is brooding over all, 
Save when, at times, some lonely wood-bird's call 
Comes fraught with memories of vanished days. 
Along the lane the sumac torches blaze ; 
From orchard trees ripe yellow apples fall; 
And eastward, far away, a mountain tall 
Looms through the blue, its summit capped in haze. 
I know not why, but autumn's golden prime, 
When corn-lands brown are set with stacks of sheaves, 
And beech burrs spill their nuts upon the ground, 
Seems, evermore, that sweet fulfilment time 
When Nature's kindly hand a chaplet weaves 
Wherewith, at last, the waning Year is crowned. 



Its Status 

VXTHAT is a temperance lecture?" 

v "Why, it is something, my son, that is regarded as a treat in New 
England and an insult in Kentucky." 

October, 1906 — 18. 




HOME 



BY 



Mrs. Louise H. Miller. 




The Home Department welcomes contributions that will make woman's life brighter, broader and more 
useful. We, all of us — you as well as I — are the editors of "Home"; let us make it as good and helpful as 
we can. Suggest subjects for discussion. 

Don't worry about "not knowing how to write." We aren't trying to be authors — we're just women 
trying to help one another. 

Address everything carefully and in full to Mrs. Louise H. Miller, Watson's Magazine, 121 West Forty-second 
Street, New York City. 



PRIZES 

Every month there will be a prize of a year's free subscription to Watson's Magazine, sent to any 
address desired, tor the best contribution under each of the following heads: the subject for the 
month, "Interest of Everyday Things," "Heroism at Home," "Recipes, Old and New," "Various 
Hints," and one for the best general contribution outside of these. No two of the six prizes will be 
awarded for the same contribution, but one person may receive more than one in a single issue by 
sending In more than one prize-winning contribution. 



November Number. — The interest and 
value of dictionaries and encyclopedias. 
How to use them. Almanacs and other ref- 
erences. How to be self-reliant instead of 
helpless when you want to know something. 

December Number. — Christmas. Origin 
and history. Customs in other lands and 
times. Our present Christmas spirit. 
Good Christmas presents and how to find 
them. 

January Number. — The care of our bodies. 
Exercise, breathing, ventilation and fresh 
air, bathing, massage, and so on. Food, 
drink and clothing will be left till later. 

February Number. — Child labor. Its ex- 
tent in this country. Who is responsible 
for this evil? How can it be done away 
with? On whom can we women exert our 
influence to suppress it? What methods 
can we use ? What has already been accom- 
plished? 



Child Labor 

The topic for February was suggested by 
one of our Georgia members, and it is cer- 
tainly an excellent one. Here is a crying 
evil, crying with the pitiful voices of tens of 
thousands of little children whose bodies, 
minds and souls are being crushed to death 
by the inhuman brutes that devote their 
lives to making money, no matter what it 
may cost others in blood and suffering. 
Here is an evil that should appeal particu- 
larly to every woman worthy of the name. 
We can't do anything? Can't we! Merci- 
ful powers, do you know what women have 
already done to crush this evil by individual 
594 



effort and by organizing? We women form 
nearly one-half the population of this 
country. Suppose forty millions of women 
rose up and said to the men, "Do this! " or, 
"Stop doing that!" Would it produce any 
results? Of course such an uprising will 
never take place, but the power is there! 
Would one million women have no effect? 
Would a thousand women in one town be a 
tremendous influence ? Would one or two or 
three women in every home be a powerful 
influence in any question affecting city, 
state or nation? It depends on the women 
themselves. There is no possible question 
of their power if they care to use it. 

I happen to know that the Georgia woman 
who suggests this topic for our Department 
understands the evils of the child labor sys- 
tem better than most of the rest of us, and I 
will gladly turn over to her the management 
of our February number, helping her in any 
way I can. I fear, however, that foi once 
the plea of "busy" is fully justified, and that 
she really has almost no time even for things 
that call forth her deepest interest and tear 
her heart with sympathy and indignation. 

But whether she can take charge of the 
February number or not, and collect letters, 
opinions and facts from other people in 
charge of the field, the idea for that number 
is hers, and everyone of the rest of us ought 
to help in every possible way to make it the 
very best issue we have had. She will do all 
she is able to do. If the rest of us do the 
same, we can take pride in the results. 
Those of you from Georgia in particular 
should be able to furnish interesting con- 



HOME 



595 



tributions, since the matter of child labor 
has so recently been up before the people of 
that state and the Georgia Legislature has 
just passed some strong laws against this 
criminal evil. Other states have passed laws 
against it, and those of you who live in 
states that have not can furnish even more 
vital information and have also a splendid 
opportunity to organize and show woman's 
power to better humanity and crush out one 
of the worst conditions of our day and 
civilization. 



'Read to "Real 

One of the best ways in all the world to 
rest is to read an interesting book. Sleep 
rests and restores not only the body, but the 
nerves, the mind and the soul. In sleep we 
can forget our worries, our irritations, our 
troubles, and that is why, since the world 
began, men and women have blessed Sleep, 
"the restorer," and written songs in her 
honor. 

Now a good book will do for us much the 
same thing as sleep. In some ways it will do 
even more. The book must interest us, 
whether history, biography, poetry, fiction 
or anything else, and to produce really 
valuable results it must not be trash. One 
must use judgment in selecting a book to 
read for rest. Avoid the tragic and the 
harrowing, the morbid and the dull. To 
rest you it must interest you, and to bring 
best results it should amuse and cheer, not 
depress. 

Why does a book rest you? Because it 
takes your mind off your troubles and makes 
you live in another life for a while. Because 
in reading it your body is resting, and so are 
the portions of your mind and soul that your 
daily life wears the hardest. Because it 
calls into play the other portions of mind and 
spirit, exercising and developing them, and 
she who develops all sides of herself, instead 
of letting some things perish from neglect, is 
not only a broader, wiser and better woman, 
but a happier and more comfortable one. 



Ejeercise and Health 

It is a more or less unexplained fact about 
women that they generally do not under- 
stand their own physical bodies and are 
ignorant of some of the simplest laws for 
taking care of them and keeping up their 
health and strength. Have you ever tried 
taking gymnastics for five minutes every 
night and morning, or both? Don't laugh, 
you who do hard physical work most of the 
day, for it will only prove my point that 
women don't understand their bodies. If 
you have worked all day over a washtub or 
at some other muscle-tiring task, then the 
very thing your body needs before you try to 
make it rest at night is a limbering up by 
means of a few light exercises taken without 
dumbbells or apparatus of any kind. It 
will untie the kinks in overworked muscles, 
start circulation in those other muscles that 



have not been used perhaps for many days, 
restore the general balance, start your lungs 
to breathing deep, tend to prevent stiffness 
the next day and send your body to bed 
far more ready for thorough rest than if it 
had not been scientifically exercised. House- 
work is more likely to be mere exertion 
rather than exercise. There is a world of 
difference. One wears out the body; the 
other builds it up. It is in confusing these 
two utterly different things that most of our 
trouble lies. 

If you are just generally weak, you are 
likely to be surprised by the health and 
strength you can gain from judicious exercise. 
Most of our bodily ailments come from some 
neglect or violation of Nature's laws. If we 
turn to her for help, Nature herself will show 
us how to lessen these ailments or overcome 
them entirely. You can learn much by 
your own experiments, and among the nu- 
merous books upon this subject there are 
many reputable and safe ones, but the ad- 
vice of your family physician is a wise thing 
to test by. He may be an old fogy and 
know nothing about it, but he may prevent 
your going to excess or adopting wrong 
methods. On the other hand, he may know 
a great deal and be a strong advocate of 
common sense exercise and care. If you 
have never examined into the subject, it is 
perhaps best to read up first and then go to 
your doctor with enough information to ask 
practical questions and have him show you 
how, and to what extent, general rules apply 
to your particular case. 

But this belongs to our October number. 



Here is an extremely interesting article 
that reached us too late for our first Civic Im- 
provement Number and was inadvertently 
left out of our second. There is much to 
be gained from reading it and thinking it 
over. And, Southern women, note well the 
closing paragraph. 

Mrs. Fant sent this article to us as it 
appeared in some other publication. Un- 
fortunately its name was not on the pages 
forwarded, and we are therefore unable to 
give more definite credit. 

To Mrs. Fant goes the prize for the best 
general contribution. 

Ci-vic Improvement in South Carolina 

By Mrs. Rufus Fant 
The great tidal wave of civic betterment 
that has been sweeping over this country of 
ours is causing thoughtful men and women 
to stop and study Nature. All great artists 
go to her to learn her secrets, knowing it is 
her hand that paints the most perfect 
pictures. Beauty predominates in all her 
works; the sun-kissed autumn leaves danc- 
ing in the breeze, the snow-capped moun- 
tain peaks, the rushing waters of her mighty 
rivers, all tell a tale of beauty. 

The human heart, sometimes glad, some- 



596 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



times sad and weary with the trials and 
burdens of life, cries out: "Give me beau- 
ty!" One 's surroundings are a strong factor 
in character building, and the lives of men 
are influenced by the atmosphere in which 
they live. In some work it is difficult to 
reach the masses; not so with the work of 
the civic associations. The masses throng 
the streets and public places, and if they 
find refreshing spots of living green, tropical 
plazas with luxuriant foliage, beautiful 
flowers with brilliant color, it will create 
within them a love for the esthetic. 

Through uplifting and refining influences 
the human soul will turn from the creature 
to the Creator. 

Strong belief in the ennobling and up- 
lifting influence of trees, plants and flowers, 
and a desire to reach the men, women and 
children of our town, was the reason the 
Civic Association of Anderson was organized, 
April, 1904. In the beginning we de- 
termined to interest ourselves in beautifying 
and improving our town. Realizing that 
environment has much to do with the forma- 
tion of character, and that Nature is ever 
ready to soothe and calm tired overworked 
humanity, we turned our eyes to see what 
we could find in the busiest portion of our 
town. We found many handsome buildings, 
paved streets and a large barren spot that 
had been used for a street over seventy 
years. We at once asked the city council 
to allow us to do as we pleased with that 
hard, barren spot. The council granted our 
request, and in four weeks' time we had 
our walks and beds laid off, had set nearly 
one hundred plants, using cannas, caladiums, 
alocasias and bananas. 

The result was far beyond our most 
sanguine expectations. The cuts will give 
you a faint idea of its growth and beauty 
at different periods. In September the 
"barren spot," with its carpet of living 
green and its magnificent bananas (meas- 
uring from fifteen to eighteen feet high), 
with the cannas, alocasias and caladiums 
for variety, was a grand and beautiful 
tropical plaza — the admiration of all. We 
have now two thousand yellow crocuses 
nestling here and there among the grass. 

Our Association will more than double 
its work this year. A portion of North and 
South Main Street has a handsome Si, 800 
iron fountain erected to the memory of 
Gen. Robert Anderson, and Court Square 
has been beautified. 

We have been more than repaid for our 
work, because we have given joy to all. 
From one of South Carolina's millionaires 
to the bootblack on the street we have heard 
expressions of praise. 

Ours is only a small beginning, for we in the 
South are just awakening to the necessities 
and grand possibilities of our own Southern 
land. — Exchange. 

* * * 

Through a mistake it was not announced 



in our September number that the prize for 
the best general contribution outside the 
other prizes was awarded to Mrs. Margaret 
Graeme None 11, of Georgia, for "The Hand 
That Rocks the Cradle Rules the World," 
and that the prize for the best story of 
"Heroism at Home" went to "Self-Sacrifice," 
also from a Georgia woman. 

OlfR FK.UIT T'REES 

We have seen how nearly all our common 
fruits came, centuries and thousands of 
years ago, from miserable wizened little wild 
fruits somewhere in Asia, and that they 
attained their present palatable and very 
various forms through tedious cultivation 
by hundreds and hundreds of generations of 
men. Gradually they crept westward into 
Europe and Africa, under the care of savage 
and nomad, Assyrian and Israelite, Persian 
and Arab, Greek and Roman, Celt and Ger- 
man, by pagan, Christian, Mohammedan and 
Druid, until they, like men, have circled 
the globe, and today the United States sells 
fruit to China. 

But how do we come to have so many 
hundred different varieties of a fruit — of 
the apple, for instance — if they were all 
originally one kind and a very poor kind at 
that? And how could such a miserable 
beginning result in such luscious fruits as 
we have nowadays? Surely not from just 
watering and pruning and common care ? 

There are three things to bear in mind 
if we seek the answer. 

1. The first is that all our fruits (except 
those native to this country and growing 
wild like the blackberry) are entirely 
artificial. Nature didn't make them as 
they are. Man did it. In every cultivated 
fruit there are two great tendencies strug- 
gling against each other. One tendency 
(Nature) urges it to return to its original 
wild form; the other (cultivation) urges it 
to progress along the paths Man has mapped 
out for it. The poor fruit is never sure which 
of these things to do. 

This struggle between the two tendencies 
began almost as soon as cultivation did. 
Man began to notice it when he found that 
the seeds of his cultivated fruits did not 
produce trees and fruit like those they were 
taken from. Often the second generation, 
grown from seed, followed the first tendency 
and "reverted " to Nature and the wild state. 
In other cases it tried to follow the second 
tendency and grew into something that was 
like neither its parents nor the wild state. 
The cultivated seeds lost their ''fidelity to 
sort" or kind. 

But in most instances the fruits grown 
from cultivated seeds were poor and useless, 
in a few cases out of thousands there would 
be one that, while it was different from its 
cultivated parents, was neither wild nor 
poor, but as good as any they had, or better. 
It was a new variety, resulting merely from 
chance and the confusing struggle in the 
fruit between Man and Nature. 



HOME 



597 



From this rose one system of improvement 
and development. Men have learned the 
process of "selection." Out of several 
thousand trees raised from seeds one or 
two turn out valuable. The seeds of 
only these few are planted for the next 
generation, since they have shown a ten- 
dency to improve rather than to "revert." 
And so for each following generation, always 
planting the seeds of only the best trees. 
Thus men assist chance in creating good 
new varieties. But this is very slow work. 

2. The second fact to note carefully is 
this. If the seed lost its "fidelity to sort" 
how could they get any considerable number 
of trees? Suppose one seed of many did 
produce a tree bearing valuable fruit, what 
good would one tree do and how could they 
get any more trees of the same kind from 
it if the seeds weren't reliable? 

Well, luckily they discovered long ago 
that if the seed lost its "fidelity to sort" 
something else didn't — the inner bark. The 
inner bark on a twig, if given a root to keep 
it alive, will always produce fruit exactly 
like that from the tree from which it was 
cut. From this discovery arose the prac- 
tice of "grafting." Shoots are cut from 
the good tree, an apple, say, and jointed on 
to the cut-off trunk or root of apple trees 
raised from almost any kind of apple seed, 
in such manner that the inner bark of the 
shoot or "scion " fits to the inner bark of the 
seedling or "stock" and the sap flows 
through as if it were one piece. This makes 
a tree whose trunk and branches are of the 
desired variety, but whose roots are of "any 
old kind" of variety. And the fruit is al- 
ways of the desired variety like the shoot 
or "scion," the root practically not affecting 
the nature of the tree and fruit for which 
it furnishes food. The sap from the root 
has to flow through the inner bark of the 
shoot grafted on to it and so changes its 
nature. 

"Budding" is another kind of grafting 
in which only a single bud of the desired, 
variety is inserted into the little seedling 
stock, this bud growing into a tree on the 
seedling's roots. 

That is how men solved the problem of 
multiplying a single good tree into many. 
That is how our tree nurseries produce 
hundreds of thousands of trees of any vari- 
ety they choose. For one tree will cut up 
into a great number of little shoots or a 
still greater number of buds. 

The old Romans understood fruit-tree 
grafting, and Pliny records seeing a single 
tree bearing several kinds of fruit. 

3. A third point. About three hundred 
years ago "cross-breeding" was discovered. 
The old way of making new varieties by 
"selection" was both slow and limited. 
"Cross-breeding" is more rapid and seems 
to have nearly limitless possibilities. 

On page 590 of our June number the parts 
of a flower are explained. To produce seeds 
the yellow pollen from the stamens must 



come in contact with the pistil and fertilize 
it. In cross-breeding man takes the pollen 
from the stamens of one variety and puts 
it on the pistil of another. The resulting 
seeds produce a tree or plant which, while 
resembling both parents, is different from 
each of them — a new variety. By com- 
bining cross-breeding with selection wonder- 
ful results are obtained in a comparatively 
short time. 

Thus, if one varietyof apple has a delicious 
taste and another variety is noted for its 
keeping qualities, the two can be cross-bred 
and the result often made to combine those 
two good qualities. 

The art is even yet in its infancy, but 
wonders have been accomplished already, 
especially by Mr. Luther Burbank, the 
"California Wizard." Seedless oranges, 
apples, plums and other fruits; the plumcot, 
made from a plum and apricot; a new fruit 
made by crossing the blackberry and rasp- 
berry; the Shasta daisy, a huge flower made 
from a Japanese, an English and an Amer- 
ican daisy, and many other marvels have 
already been obtained. While not every 
two varieties will cross successfully, in some 
cases even different species will do so, occa- 
sionally even different genera. The future 
holds great promises. 

By these processes, cross-breeding, selec- 
tion and grafting and budding, man is able 
to produce new improved varieties and 
species of fruit (each new one is copyrighted, 
by the way) of various flavors, keeping 
qualities, size, times of ripening, thickness 
of skin, texture of meat, color, hardiness, 
etc., and to produce as many specimens 
of any one kind as he pleases, despite the 
fact that he cannot depend on the seed. 

Take a look at the fruit trees in your own 
yard. If they are not too old you may be 
able to see, close to the ground, a ring or 
bulge showing where they were grafted 
or budded at some nursery. If it is a pear 
tree you are examining it is pretty safe to 
say the roots came from France and the 
top from New York State, possibly via 
Ohio. If an apple, the root or stock prob- 
ably came from Kansas, the top from some 
other part of the United States. If an 
apricot or nectarine, the roots are the roots 
of a peach or plum from France or Tennes- 
see. Dwarf pears have quince roots. 
Quinces are an exception and, not being so 
highly cultivated as most of the other fruits, 
are raised from seeds, the seeds coming from 
Europe . The roots of most plu ms and cherries 
are imported from France, and the roots of 
peach trees generally come from seeds 
brought from the mountains of Tennessee 
to the various nurseries in New York, Ohio, 
Kansas, Nebraska and elsewhere. 

All this is only an outline of this inter- 
esting subject. The fruit trees you see 
every day have a wonderful history. Isn't 
it striking that half of one of them may 
have been born in France, the other half in 
some part of our own country and the two 



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WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



halves joined together in another part of 

the United States? Trees are made the way 

a carpenter builds a house ! And think what 

their history has been! 

* * * 

How about the special prizes for contri- 
butions to "Recipes" and "Various Hints"? 



It is such an easy way of winning a year's 
subscription, especially the former. And 
it won't be long before we are wondering 
what to get our friends for Christmas— 
indeed, if you would like a subscription to 
the Magazine for that purpose it is high 
time already to send in your recipe or hint. 



3/THE INTEREST OF EVERYMf THINGS\ 

We want all the interesting facts we can get about the origin, history and manufacture of our ordi- 
nary household utensils and furniture, the various articles of food and drmk, the common things in our 
yards and neighborhoods. The object of this branch of our Department is to make interesting the very 
implements of our daily toil, and to teach the mind to free itself from the deadening monotony of mere 
routine and to learn to gather wholesome, enlivening food from the broader fields outside. 

1 Send in any items you may think of yourself or learn from inquiry by consulting encyclopedias, 
dictionaries, books, magazines or the free reports of the United States Department of Agriculture and 
the United States Department of Commerce and Labor. . 

2 If you find a newspaper article or paragraph which gives interesting information about any 01 
the ordinary articles or commodities of our everyday home life, send it to the Department or tell us 
where to find it. Always give the name of the publication from which you take it. Inform the De- 
partment, too, of any good books along this line. 

^/"FECIAL fRlZ,E. 






Every month there will be a special prize of one year's free subscription to Watson's 
" :ss desired, for the best contribution to "The Interest of Everyday Things 



Magazine 



sent to any address 

Though we have received many letters for 
all other parts of the Department, we have 
had only one for " The Interest of Everyday 
Things." This is a little surprising, for it 
is really one of the best things we have in 
our Department. It does its good in a 
quiet way, but it is helpful nevertheless. 
You use a great many implements and 
materials in your daily routine. They have 
long since lost all interest to you except as 
means to a necessary end. Yet every time 
you handle one of these familiar things you 
are handling something that has been bound 
up with the history of the human race for 
many years, for centuries perhaps, maybe 
for even thousands of years. During all 
that time this thing was being changed and 
improved until it became as you see it now. 
How crude it was once! Take flour, for 
example. What a difference between our 
flour now and that of our grandmothers 
or perhaps even of our mothers. How very 
different from that used by the Children of 
Israel in Egypt and the Holy Land in Bible 
times! What a tremendous change since 
people dressed in the skins of animals, fought 
among themselves like the savages they 
were with rough weapons of wood and stone 
and ground the knotty little kernels of 
wheat between two rough stones until they 
had enough coarse, gritty meal to mix with 
nothing but water, pack into a clumsy cake 
and roast before the fire or bake on a hot 
stone! And people have been using some 
kind of flour for thousands of years — the 



Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Meies, 
Chinese, Afghans, Israelites, Egyptians, 
Phenicians, Greeks, Romans; all the wild 
and savage peoples who, centuries ago, swept 
in great devastating hordes from Asia west 
into Europe, conquering, destroying, sup- 
planting, settling down to remain forever 
or being in turn destroyed by the hordes 
that followed them, all these had their crude 
flour — Huns, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Suevi. 
Alans, Vandals, Tartars, Magyars and all the 
rest; so did those of the Mohammedan faith, 
called Saracens, Turks, Moors, Arabs and 
many other names, who swept heathen and 
Christian alike before them till they had 
conquered Constantinople and all South- 
eastern Europe, Asia Minor, all the north 
of Africa, nearly all of Spain and only by one 
of the greatest struggles of history were kept 
from overpowering all of the civilized world; 
all these had their coarse flour and crude 
handmills as they roamed and fought and 
mixed and laid the foundations for Europe 
and its people as they are today. As you 
look back through the centuries and picture 
to yourself all these successive peoples in 
Asia, Europe, Africa and North and South 
America, what a long and varied line of 
women, white, brown and black, stretches 
out in all climes and under all conditions, 
grinding grain between two stones, tending a 
crude water-wheel or belaboring some pitiful 
little donkey doomed to do the actual work. 
And now think of our own times, the great 
wheat lands, the wonderful mills, the rail- 



HOME 



599 



roads and all the things concerned in getting 
you this flour. Suppose it could speak- - 
what a wonderful story it could tell! If 
only it could tell you about its ancestors 
and family genealogy! Or if it would just 
tell you where it came from itself — had 
Government scientists developed the seed 
from which it sprung? Where had it lived 
and grown — in Ohio, Kansas, the South, the 
Northwest, Canada ? What kind of men and 
women had tended it? Did it help raise a 
mortgage or was it part of a poor crop that 
only tightened the shackles of debt? What 
is the country like there where it grew up ? 
Where was it sent to be milled? To Minne- 
apolis? Did the Trusts get hold of it? 
Where did it travel after it was ground into 
flour? Perhaps it has seen more of the 
world than you have yourself. When did 
the local dealer get it? How much did he 
pay for it? What fixes the price of flour, 
anyway ? 

Well, the value is not so much in any- 
thing you have learned or may picture to 
yourself about flour as in the habit of mind 
you are cultivating. You are learning to 
make play out of work without hurting the 
work. The more interest you have in a 
thing, the better you will do it. You are 
broadening your life — reaching out beyond 
the narrow confines of your everyday routine. 
Your body is tied to one place in the world, 
but you are teaching your mind to free it- 
self and fly to other climes among other 
people. The first time you fly you may not 
gather much of value, but you have made 
a beginning and had some mental exercise. 
Next time you will glean a little more. Later 
you will learn to fly farther and more easily. 
In time you will find yourself another and 
a happier and more useful woman. If you 
let your imagination have free play for a 
while you will encounter many things of 
interest about which you wish to know 
more. One thing leads to another. You 
may find a gold mine of happiness for your- 
self and others. 

For "Knowledge is power," not only a 
power in material things, but also in those of 
the spirit. Who can do most for her 
children — a wise woman or an ignorant one ? 
For her husband?- For everyone with 
whom she comes in contact? Think! 

There are several reasons, I suppose, why 
you have not responded to this one part of 
our Department. I think the chief one is 
that you hadn't quite realized how much 
srood you can do through contributing to 
" The 'Interest of Evervday Things." An- 
other reason is that there was no special 
anpeal for items along this line. Another, 
that such items are not always easy to get 
unless you know where to look for them. 
Another, that the little articles under this 
head have been appearing each month with- 
out effort on your part and you just let well 
enough alone. 

Now I don't mind doing the work, so far 
as the trouble is concerned. But I am only 



one woman! If one woman can do a little, 
a lot of us can do a great deal. And one of 
the best things our Department can do for 
any of us is to give us the opportunity to 
work together for the good of all the women 
who read it. 

Where to find items ? Well, you probably 
know some already if you will just search 
around in your head. And how do you 
suppose / find them? Goodness! You 
didn't imagine I just knew all those things 
about wheat and flour and brooms and so 
on? No indeed! I had to browse around 
among encyclopedias and dictionaries and 
magazines and books as well as turn my 
memory inside out. It was pleasant and 
interesting work, and I'll be glad to do more 
of it, but, as I said, I'm only one woman. 
All of us together can accomplish so much 
more! 

Now as to the notice at the head of "The 
Interest of Everyday Things." The offer 
of a separate prize for items under this head 
speaks for itself. Keep your eyes and ears 
open for items or short articles. And don't 
forget to send in clippings and to tell where 
to find good articles along this line. 



Carpenters' Squares 

The large steel squares used by carpenters 
are such a common tool that perhaps few 
know when and where they were first made, 
and how they came to be used, or even give 
the matter a thought. The making of them 
is a great industry now, but when the last 
century came in there was not one in use. 

The inventor was a poor Vermont black- 
smith, Silas Howes, who lived in South 
Shaftsbury. 

One dull, rainy day a peddler of tinware 
called at his shop to have the blacksmith 
fasten a shoe on his horse. These peddlers 
traveled up and down the country calling at 
every farmhouse buying everything in the 
way of barter. This one had a number of 
worn-out steel saws that he had picked up in 
various places. Howes bargained for them, 
shoeing the peddler's horse and receiving the 
saws in payment, and each thought he had 
made an excellent trade. 

His idea was to polish and weld two saws 
together, at right angles, and thus make a 
rule or measure superior to anything then in 
use. > After a few attempts he succeeded in 
making a square, marked it off into inches 
and fractions of inches and found that it 
answered every purpose that he intended it 
for. 

In the course of a few weeks he made quite 
a number during his spare hours. These 
he sent out by the peddler, who found every 
carpenter eager to buy one. Soon he found 
orders coming in faster than he could supply 
the demand. One of his steel "squares" 
would sell for $5 or $6, which was five times 
as much as it cost him. 

He applied for and obtained a patent on 
his invention so that no one else could de- 



600 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



prive him of the profit it gave him. It was 
just after the war of 1812, and money was 
scarce and difficult to get. But he worked 
early and late, and as he earned money he 
bought iron, and hired men to help him. 
In a few years he was able to erect a large 
factory and put in machinery for the making 
of squares, which by this time had found 
their way all over the' country and had made 
their inventor famous. 

Such was the small beginning of a large 



and important industry. People came miles 
to see the wonderful forges, the showers of 
sparks flying from beneath the heavy ham- 
mers, and listen to the din of the thousand 
workmen. 

Silas Howes lived to be a millionaire, and 
he did a great deal of good with his money. 
Squares are still made on the spot where 
the first one was made more than ninety- five 
years ago. 

— From the Congregationalism 



^f|f^ HEROISM AT HOME. 



A T'RIZ.E FO"R THE "BEST T*RUE STO'Ry 

Every month the Department will publish a little story of heroism in the home — not any one act 
of heroism but the tale of how someone lived heroically, lived self-sacrifice in everyday life. It must be 
true and must be about somebody you know or have known or know definitely about. // must not have 

over 500 words. . , -•.... „, „ 

Please state whether the names and places mentioned tn your story are real or fictitious. I he Depart- 
ment does not print real names in these stories. The names in the story will be left blank or fictitious 
names will be supplied. Please do not send in stories about someone rescuing another from drowning, 
or anything like that— we don't want stories of single acts of heroism, but of lives bravely and unselfishly 
lived out. 

SPECIAL VRIZ.E 
Whoever sends in the best story each month will not only have it printed, but will receive a year's free 
subscription to Watson's Magazine sent to any name you choose. 



The October prize for the best story of 
Heroism at Home is awarded to "Aunt 
Betty," though both the other stories are 
excellent and the lives protrayed in them 
admirable. 

Aunt "Belty 

Her head was drawn to a bowed position, 
and her face marred by a terrible burn re- 
ceived in babyhood, but the patient, brave 
spirit was sweet and fair. 

If her youth was embittered because she 
knew that girlish hopes and dreams were 
vain for her, she never complained. In 
middle life she contracted a prosaic marriage 
which could promise nothing but added 
cares, driven to it probably by the natural 
longing which most women have for a home, 
of their own. 

After her husband's death, who was an 
invalid for several years, she returned to 
her youngest and best loved brother's, and 
at the time she was seized with her last fatal 
sickness was nursing him with a cancerous 
affliction, as she had a sister in long years 
past. 

During all her long life she served others, 
nursed the sick, cared for motherless little 
ones; and I like to think that in her last 
sickness she herself was tenderly nursed. 

Christ said, "If any man desire to be first 
he shall be servant of all," and truly "Aunt 
Betty" closely resembled her Lord in that 
she was not ministered unto, but ministered 
to others, and I believe she will have a chief 
place in heaven and that the bowed head is 
now erect, and the patient, marred face 
glorified . — Georgia . 



All _for the Lotfe of Mother 

Many an evening after school hours as I 
was engaged in my janitor duties in a great 
university, did I stop and look with sadness 
upon a little cottage that stood in a cluster 
of trees several blocks from me. It was the 
home of three persons — a mother, her son 
and an old negro servant who had almost 
become an heirloom in the family. Just as 
often as I looked in that direction I found 
little Jim, my faithful hero, with his broad 
straw hat perched far back upon his head, 
carefully hoeing a luxuriantly growing gar- 
den, which was so much better than those 
of his neighbors that it seemed his broad 
smile and sweet, gentle voice must have 
some magic power over the tender vege- 
tables that made them spring quickly into 
maturity. These marketable vegetables did 
not represent the sum total of his labor; to 
the rear of the house Was a pile of many 
cords of wood split up ready for the con- 
sumer. 

To a casual observer this lad of sixteen 
would have appeared to be the most con- 
tented of the contented. But was he? 
Indeed not. Within his youthful body 
there burned a noble ambition. He was 
a child of poverty. Nevertheless he nour- 
ished a hope that some day he might raise 
himself to such a standing socially that he 
could demand for himself the respect of 
his more fortunate neighbors. The massive 
university buildings in the near distance 
held for him such a chance that the evil in him 
pleaded strongly for him to go his way and 
reap the advantage of an education. "Other 



HOME 



601 



poor boys marched from its portals each 
year to occupy positions of honor in the 
business world," he would say in his mind, 
"therefore, why can't I go there, work my 
way through and release myself from pov- 
erty's clutch?" All such thoughts as these 
were pine-knots to feed Jim's burning ambi- 
tion. Truly did his heart rebound with joy 
as he conjured up the sunlit future of his 
imagination; but, thank God, there was 
something to him dearer and far more to be 
desired than fame or riches — the love of a 
mother. 

Jim, knowing it to be impossible to realize 
his desire and at the same time do his duty 
toward his mother, determined to suppress 
it and to devote his time to bringing sun- 
shine into his mother's sick-room. Often as 
he sat by her bedside and felt the motherly 
kiss upon his brow, and often while he was 
engaged in menial labor to supply her wants, 
his mind reverted to childhood days when 
her love was thrown about him as a cloak 
which protected him from all evil and 
danger. Quick did he realize that all his 
kindness and care were a meagre recompense 
for her tender love and guardianship. For 
hours after he returned from his work he 
would read stories to her. Often she would 
ask him not to worry himself reading to her, 
but to lie down and rest. Then his broad 
face would become shaped into a smile and 
with a gentle voice he would say, "I am not 
tired, mother, and I think it a pleasure to 
read to you." Thus through the continued 
efforts of Jim this little cottage became the 
brightest star in the constellation of sur- 
rounding homes because it was the dwelling- 
place of that which alone can make a home — 
love. 

After being in bed six years his mother 
partially recovered, and today Jim holds an 
important position. May he continue to 
be successful, for there can be no greater 
hero than the boy who fights the battles of 
life for his mother. The world should pay 
homage to such a boy. — Texas. 



Alice 

In one of the pleasant neighborhoods of 



the upper part of the City of New York is a 
cozy home in an old-fashioned house. In 
the pleasant second-story front room sits an 
invalid mother wan and thin from suffering 
and long-continued illness. As we first see 
her she is saying, weakly and somewhat 
querulously, "Isn't it time for my medicine? 
Where is Alice? " 

"Yes, it is time," says another daughter 
who sat in the room. "Let me give it to 
you, mother darling." 

"No, no. Where is Alice? She knows 
best just how to give it." 

As she finished speaking a cheery, pleasant 
voice partly spoke, partly sang: "Here I 
am. Time for nurse?" 

For she was nurse and home keeper and all, 
this bright, dainty girl, or rather young 
woman, one of a large family. The rest had 
married and left home. All were dear, 
loving, dutiful children and ready to do all 
they could for an idolized mother, but Alice, 
though a teacher in one of the large city 
schools, attended to her school duties and 
cared for her sick mother with only the help 
of an incompetent kitchenmaid, teaching 
all day and hurrying home again to sit up 
night after night, never taking rest or 
pleasure during one of her mother's more 
serious attacks. She was also, companion 
to her father, whose first question on coming 
in the house is, "Where is Alice ? " She was 
loved by a very worthy man and had been 
engaged to be married for several years, but 
although her friend urged her to marry him, 
she felt that she could not attend to her in- 
valid mother as she needed and deserved by 
doing so. And when some person told her 
mother that she was putting off her mar- 
riage on her account it made Alice very 
angry. She spent all her time and lavished 
all her money on her mother, and when the 
mother died a few weeks ago the family 
was afraid the loss would be so great that 
she would break down. All her youngest 
days have been spent in caring for her 
mother. Now she is broken in health and 
spirits. It will take years to regain her 
strength and she can never gain the years 
that are lost, but she is satisfied that she did 
what was for the best. — New York. 



VARIOUS HINTS 

Every month there will be a special prize of one year's free subscription to Watson's Magazine, 
sent to any address desired, for the best contribution to "Various Hints." 
The prize this month goes to Mrs. Afton, of Kentucky. 



To "RemoxJe Mildebu 

Mildew spots may be taken from linen 
by wetting them, rubbing in powdered 
chalk and exposing to the air. Diluted 
hartshorn will do the work on woolen goods. 
A weak solution of chloride of lime will 



free most fabrics of mildew, but will fade 
certain colors. 

Airs. Lucy H. Afton, Kentucky. 

"Polish for /ticket Plate 

Sift the finest coal ashes through muslin. 



602 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Dip a soft cloth in kerosene, then in the 
ashes; rub hard. Dry and polish with a 
woolen cloth. 

Mrs. Adoniram Stevens, New York. 

Boiled Water 

Drinking water in many places is not 
fit for use until it has been boiled to kill 
the germs. Those in doubt as to the length 
of time it should be boiled will be interested 
in knowing that half an hour is, according 
to scientists, a safe period. 

Mrs. Allan T. Henry, Michigan. 



To Mend Iron Tots 

Here is a receipt we have often used for a 
solder with which to mend holes in iron pots 
and other utensils. Two parts of sulphur 
and one part (by weight) of fine black lead; 
heat the sulphur in an iron pan over the fire 
till it begins to melt, then add the lead and 
stir until all is well mixed and melted. Pour 
on an iron plate or smooth stone to cool. 
Cut into suitable sizes and apply to hole with 
a hot soldering-iron. Often it is a good plan 
to close a small hole with a copper rivet 
using the solder. 

Mrs. Emma N. Perkins, Illinois. 




mClFES, OLD AND NEW 




Every month there will be a special prize of one year's free subscription to Watson's Magazine 
sent to any address desired, for the best contribution to "Recipes, Old and New." 



From a collection of recipes that dates 
back almost to "war time" we shall give a 
few every month just as they stand in the 
old hand-written book that has come down 
to us. Along with them occasional new 
recipes of the present day will be given. 

Tapioca "Pudding 

Four tablespoons of tapioca soaked over- 
night. One quart of milk. Boil the milk 
and pour it over the tapioca; when nearly 
cold add two tablespoons of sugar well 
beaten with the yolks of four eggs. Flavor 
lightly with lemon or nutmeg and bake an 
hour in the oven. When done and cooled 
pour on it and spread smoothly a frosting 
made of the whites of two eggs beaten and 
half a pint of powdered sugar. This serves 
as a sauce. It may be used without the 
frosting if a little more sugar is added to the 
pudding and the whites of eggs may be 
spread on and slightly browned. 

Taj try 

One teacup of lard, four of flour, one tea- 
spoon of salt and enough barley water to 
make it roll, half a teacup or less if possible. 
Make it up quickly and roll as little as pos- 
sible. Make it in a cool place and use very 
cold water. 

Macaroni and Cheese 

Boil the macaroni till soft and drain it. 
Lay alternate layers of macaroni and Par- 
mesan cheese or finely grated ordinary cheese 
in a baking- vessel, preferably a casserole. 



Use nothing else, though a very little milk 
or even water may be put in the bottom of 
the dish to prevent drying up if the cheese 
is very old or the oven very quick. 

Corn "Bread 

One quart cornmeal, one quart milk, 
four eggs well beaten, a good heaping tea- 
spoon of salt, a good tablespoon of lard, 
mixed together. Then put in four good 
teaspoons of baking powder and stir not too 
much. Grease your pans and bake about 
twenty minutes in a hot oven. 

Taffy 

Six pounds sugar, two cups water, two 
cups vinegar, two cups cream, the broken 
whites of two eggs and a little lemon to 
flavor. Skim when it first boils. 

"Russian Salad and "Dressing 

Cut up olives and pickled beets (flavored, 
if possible, with bay-leaves) and pour these 
and green peas over a foundation of lettuce, 
romaine or escarolle laid on plates ready to 
serve. Proportions and size of pieces to 
taste. Small pieces of cauliflower may also 
be used. For a dressing use three parts 
olive oil to one of vinegar (wine vinegar is 
better than that from cider), adding to the 
oil, before the vinegar is put in, salt and 
pepper to taste. Many will prefer a smaller 
proportion of vinegar. Paprika (Hungar- 
ian pepper) is better than the ordinary 
kinds, lending a very distinctive taste. 
Fresh lemon juice may also be used instead 
of vinegar or even along with it. 



HOME 603 



^^0 THE MONTHS MEMENTO. ^^^ 

Undek. this head in every number we will have some little poem or prose extract from the work of 
some great man. There is no rule or limitation in selecting these. Anything that is good and helpful 
and aids to broader thinking and truer living may find place here. 

Be Strong! 

Be strong! 
We are not here to play, to, dream, to drift. 
We have hard work to do and loads to lift, 
Shun not the struggle; face it, 'tis God's gift. 

Be strong! 
Say not the days are evil — Who's to blame? 
And fold the hands an d acquiesce — oh , shame ! 
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's 
name. 

Be strong! 
It matters not how deep intrenched the 

wrong, 
How hard the battle goes, the day how long; 
Faint not, fight on. Tomorrow comes the 
song. 

Maltbie Davenport Babcock. 



A Great Head 



a 



T AM absolutely certain," said the worried-looking man, "that I locked myself 
■*■ in my room last night, stuck a nail in the keyhole, and fastened down all 
the windows, and yet when I awoke this morning my pocketbook containing 
$294 was missing. I don't see how anyone could have entered the room 
during the night, for I found all the fastenings intact, and I begin to suspect 
that I arose in my sleep and robbed myself." 

" You are undoubtedly a somnambulist! " replied the bulging-browed young 
attorney. "And — by George! — say, that has in it the making of one of the 
most unique cases in the entire history of jurisprudence! Why, my dear sir, I 
can get you sent to the penitentiary for five years, at the very least, if you just 
say the word! " 



Something to Live Up to 

"TIT AS this calf a pedigree?" inquired the prospective purchaser. 

-*--■■ "Well, I'll tell you how 'tis," replied honest Farmer Bentover. "His 
father hooked the liver out of a lightning-rod agent, throwed a presidin' elder 
up on top of the barn, and busted up the automobile that ran over him and 
broke his back; and his mother chased a lady elocutionist into a well, and kicked 
three ribs out of a hoss-doctor. And if that ain't pedigree enough for a ten- 
dollar calf, I don't see how me and you can do any great amount of swappin! " 




e//enrIrom 
The People 



Our readers are requested to be as brief as possible in their welcome letters to the Magazine, as 
the great number of communications daily received makes it impossible to publish all of them or even 
to use more than extracts from many that are printed. Every effort, however, will be made to give 
the people all possible space for a direct voice in the Magazine, and this Department is freely open to 
them. 



"RWRAL FTtEE 'DELIVE'Ry 

From Hon. A. L. Brick 
Committee on Appropriations, House 
of Representatives, 
Washington, D. C, August i, 1906. 
My Dear Mr. Watson: 

I mailed a letter to you, prior to receiving 
your last one to me. In that letter I ex- 
plained that I did not have a record until 
the day before containing the speech. I 
had to telegraph for it and the data I had 
prepared on the speech is in a box containing 
my Washington papers, which has gone 
astray in the mail and has not yet been 
received. The Post-office Department is 
now searching for the box, but up to this 
time it has not been located. 

I made quite a thorough examination of 
reports of the Post-office Department 
and of the Congressional Records, and 
talked with officers of the Post-office 
Department and members of the 
Post-office Committee, and old Congress- 
men, and did the best I could to get a full 
run of what was done from the start to 
finish in the development of rural free 
delivery. Until I looked over the Record 
the morning I wrote you I had not noticed 
in the paragraph on page 9596, beginning 
with, "The first seed was sown when Hon. 
Mr. Bingham, the Republican Congressman 
from Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution 
in the Fifty-first Congress — a Republican 
Congress," that there was a mistake, and one 
which is embarrassing to me, because I find 
it is printed in small type, and therefore on 
the face of it is a quotation, when parts of it 
should not have been quoted, and was not 
intended by me to be quoted. 

General Bingham's bill was for the ex- 
tension of the free delivery system, and that 
part of the paragraph should have read that 
the appropriation of $10,000 was for ex- 
perimental extension of the free delivery 
system. Now this is the way it ought to 
read. 

The first seed was sown when Hon. Mr. 
Bingham, the Republican Congressman from 
604 



Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution in the 
Fifty-first Congress — a Republican Congress. 
This resolution, which called for an appro- 
priation of $10,000 for experimental ex- 
tension of the free delivery system in rural 
towns and villages, passed the House and 
Senate and became a law. The experiment 
was a success, as is shown by the report of 
the Republican Postmaster-General Wana- 
maker. 

"In its infancy it was pounced upon by 
the Democratic Party, a party that has an 
unbroken history of never missing an op- 
portunity to try to throttle the life of every 
infant industry that may be so unfortunate 
as to meet it upon the great highway of 
progress. In making appropriations for the 
Post-office Department for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1894, the sum of $10,000 
was appropriated for the purpose of making 
experiments in the rural free delivery of 
mail." (I think this latter should be in 
small type indicating a quotation.) 

I believe, Mr. Watson, this answers your 
first, second, third and fourth propositions 
in your letter of July 20, which is your last 
letter to me, and taken in consideration with 
my other letters to you fully explains the 
reason for the statement, "The first seed 
was sown when Hon. Mr. Bingham, the 
Republican Congressman from Pennsyl- 
vania, introduced a resolution in the Fifty- 
first Congress — a Republican Congress." 

But I also explain this later on herein as 
well as in former letters. 

Now, as to your fifth question, in which 
you state your contention "that rural free 
delivery so-called, under Hon. John Wana- 
maker was confined to the limits of towns 
and villages and did not operate in rural 
precincts at all." I don't think I ever made 
any statement about Mr. Bingham's per- 
sonal attitude upon the subject of rural 
free delivery. I certainly did not know, 
having never talked with him about it, just 
what his full intentions were. My con- 
tention was that he introduced a resolution 
for the extension of free delivery in rural 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



605 



towns and villages, and in talking with per- 
sons familiar with the experiments made at 
the time, I discovered that here and there, 
I do not say in all of them, but here and 
there they got outside of the precincts of the 
villages and towns into the country, and that 
that gave the idea of rural free delivery. 
Now I talked with a number of persons ac- 
quainted with the conditions at that time 
while I was investigating the subject and 
making my notes, and they said that this 
was done in places where experiments were 
being made in small towns and villages, and 
that while these experiments were being 
made they did get outside of the towns and 
villages here and there into the country. 
I cannot say how far, but in common fair- 
ness to you, who have been fair with me, I 
would say that it was to a limited extent, 
and it was this which caused the idea to 
sprout. 

Since receiving your last letter I sent for 
Mr. Wanamaker's report, and I take it that 
Mr. Bingham's resolution was probably incit- 
ed by Mr. Wanamaker, from all that I can 
now understand, and that Mr. Wanamaker, 
before the money became available, talked 
about its being the inception of rural free 
delivery, and evidently had rural free 
delivery in his mind from the very start, and 
he said in his report of 1890 that in carrying 
out the experiments under that resolution 
they would have mail delivered, say, 
within a radius of two miles. And further 
he said in thinly settled rural districts it had 
been proposed to ask school-teachers to dis- 
tribute mail to pupils authorized by their 
parents and neighbors to receive it, and 
then he said that no doubt a dozen different 
devices could be tried. 

As I say, in making these experiments it 
has been my creditable information that 
they did go outside of the town and village 
limits into the country, and that that was 
the intention of Mr. Wanamaker, and in his 
report he said that that was what he in- 
tended to do, all of which shows that rural 
free delivery was his object in 1890, when 
the resolution was passed bearing Mr. 
Bingham's name. 

Now, Mr. Watson, I believe this answers 
your questions as propounded by your last 
letter. I certainly have intended to an- 
swer them as explicitly as it was possible 
for me to do. You will see from the quo- 
tations from Wanamaker's report, and from 
my investigations, why I made the state- 
ment that the first seeds of rural free de- 
livery were sown in the Bingham resolution. 

In my former letter to you I gave you the 
credit for your resolution later on. 
Sincerely yours, 

A. L. Brick. 



Editor's Note: 

The error into which Mr. Brick falls con- 
sists in confusing the R. F. D. of Mr. Wana- 
maker with the R. F. D. as we now have it. 

It was conceded during the debate in the 
Fifty-second Congress that Mr. Wanamaker 
had put in operation a system of Rural Free 
Delivery. But it was also conceded that the 
Post-office Department had construed the 
words to mean country towns and country vil- 
lages. 

Mr. Brick will see that this is so, if he will 
examine the Congressional Record of the 
Fifty-second Congress. General Bingham, 
as before stated, was present when the matter 
was discussed, and took part in the debate. 
There was no dispute whatever about the 
facts. Everybody conceded that Mr. Wana- 
maker's R. F. D. was experimenting in 
towns and villages. Hence, the wording of 
my Resolution requiring that experiments 
be made outside towns and villages, and 
hence the statement of Chairman Henderson, 
of the Committee of Post-offices and Post- 
roads, putting the House upon notice that 
if it passed my Resolution it would be en- 
acting NEW LEGISLATION. 

Mr. Brick is altogether wrong in saying 
that the official report on the success of free 
delivery of mails outside towns and villages 
was based upon experiments made under the 
Bingham Resolution. 

No, No, no! 

The first experiment on Rural Free 
Delivery as the country now knows it was 
made in the mountains of West Virginia, 
under the administration of William L. Wil- 
son, and by virtue of my Resolution and two 
similar ones which followed. 

If Mr. Brick will examine the Govern- 
ment report, now published in book form, he 
will realize how far he has gone astray in at- 
tempting to make the Bingham Resolution 
the cornerstone of the stately edifice now 
known as the R. F. D. system. 



Hon. Tom Watson, Thomson, Ga. 

I send parts of Wanamaker's report in 
answer to your letter herewith, and make it 
a part of my response. 



F*ROM A FHIEfi-D 

Taylor McRae, Fort Worth, Tex. 

I have followed the canvass in Georgia 
for the last three months through the 
columns of the Atlanta Journal and have 
read with interest your speeches and letters 
in defense of yourself against the attacks 
of partisan Democrats, and also your advice 
to Populists as to what their course should 
be in the primaries. I am a Populist and 
have been one through all of the heat and 
strife of the past; was a delegate to the 
St. Louis convention in 1896 that nominated 
you for second place on the ticket, having 
been selected by the convention which 
nominated myself for congress at Kerrville, 
Tex. I have never faltered in the faith, 
but have hoped that the day would come 
when all of us Populists might find some party 
that was advocating our principles and with 
which we might act honestly and without 
fear of betrayal. As I said before, I read 



606 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



over your advice to our people in your state, 
and after thinking the matter over I con- 
cluded that you were right and that as our 
leader we were bound to follow your advice 
when our own intelligence indicated to us 
that it was the true course to pursue. I am 
growing old, am now nearly sixty-two, and 
the hot blood of my younger days has been 
somewhat cooled and I am better able now 
to hold myself in check and consider the 
matters coolly and without prejudice. I have 
advised our boys of what you said to your 
Georgia brothers, and while they hate a 
Texas Democrat very bitterly, I think they 
were convinced after a talk that your course 
was the best. We have little hope here 
of ever building up the party again, and 
it seems to me that with the great strides 
the people of all parties are making toward 
our platform, it might be well for us to hold 
ourselves independent and fight with the 
crowd that come nearest holding to our 
views. I do not mean to attach ourselves 
to any party, but throw our votes to the 
one which has a man upon a platform 
nearest ours, and who is a man that we 
believe to be honest and who will stand for 
what he promises if elected. 

I would be pleased when you have a 
moment that you can conveniently spare 
to let me have some of your ideas upon the 
present situation. Mr. Hearst seems to 
be nearer us than any man before the people, 
and again he is so bitterly hated by the 
machine Democracy that he must be hurting 
them somewhere below the fifth rib. What- 
ever happens believe me to be your friend 
ever. Col. H. L. Bently and I are warm 
friends. 



Mary D. Jensen. 

After reading very carefully "Letters 
from the People" and the editorials, I feel 
that there is a something lacking somewhere 
and in the kindest manner possible I will 
suggest a few things that in a little super- 
ficial way I think might improve the whole. 
Now a letter writer who wants to see his 
or her name printed will be apt to say 
things that have no foundation in fact, 
and some of them would not know a brain 
if it came up and made signs, so please 
don't give us so much of that kind of thing 
without a little leaven. Now this is the 
truth, Great Editor Man, and see that you 
write it fair. Any man or woman who thinks 
the editor of Tom Watson's Magazine a 
profound thinker and such men as Henry 
George, Louis Post, William Loyd Garri- 
son, Tom L. Johnson, etc., "superficial" 
is a damn fool! 

Hoping this will be in good time. 

Editor's Note: 

Yes, Mary, your letter came "in good 
time." 

I trust that the correspondent whom 



you very properly size up as "a damn 
fool" will mend his ways before it is ever- 
lastingly too late. Good-bye, Mary. 

THE 'RAIL'ROA'D VRO"BLEM 

J. Dan Woodall, Sr., Barnesville, Ga. 

Commenting on your platform for 1908, 
will say: If we reach the point of "Public 
Ownership" of public utilities, we believe 
"State Ownership" would be a great deal 
safer and better than "Government Owner- 
ship." State sovereignty is to be desired 
above feudal sovereignty in every matter 
possibly consistent with public interest. 

Pending the agitation of public ownership, 
I'm in favor of capitalizing the railroads at 
$20,000 per mile and limit their dividends 
to 8 percent., take away their charter where 
roadbeds and rolling stock are not kept in 
substantial condition. 

If anyone doubts your charge of negli- 
gence against the Southern Railway, let 
him go to Oliver Springs, Tenn., and exam- 
ine the Southern's roadbed through that 
town. I spent two weeks in above named 
town last month, June, 1906. Being appre- 
hensive of the Southern on account of its 
reputation for wrecks and poor equipments, 
I preferred the W. U. A. and Cm Son., 
which landed me at Oakdale ; balance of 
route, some twenty miles, I traveled by 
the Southern. After arrival I noticed the 
smallness of the rails and the alarmingly 
decayed condition of the crossties — some 
of the ends of the crossties, from the track- 
irons out, were so rotten that there was no 
distinct body of them left; others so shelly 
that you could tear them asunder with your 
hands. Six passenger and as high as ten 
to fifteen freight trains passed over this 
road, we were told, every twenty-four hours. 
Returning from Oliver Springs we came by 
a Louisville & Nashville accommodation 
freight to Knoxville, thirty-five miles, and 
then via the Louisville & Nashville passen- 
ger to Atlanta, changing cars at Marietta. 
If all the railroads in Georgia were capital- 
ized at $20,000, made to pay tax on that 
amount, allowed to make a dividend of 8 per 
cent, on that amount, passenger rates reduced 
to one cent per mile on an accidental policy 
basis, elected as to amount of policy by the 
purchaser, relieving the taxpayer and the 
railroad companies of the cost and troubles 
of damage suits, I think it would go far 
toward adjusting the railroad problem. 

F'ROM A 'RETU'BLICA.f* 

C. A. Buck, Rushsylvania, O. 

I have read the July number with un- 
usual interest, but your suggestion for a 
political platform appealed to me stronger 
than any one thing in it. I have always 
been considered a strong party man, of 
Republican persuasion, and have generally 
advocated its principles during my exten- 
sive experience in country newspaper work. 
But I've been getting weak in the faith for 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



607 



two years or more, until now I care little 
for a party name. It is men and measures 
for me hereafter, regardless of partisan con- 
sideration. May you prosper in your good 
work. 



the most votes. The devil will never be 
whipped till all his enemies combine their 
forces in the fight. 

I am for Watson in 1903. 



a vrovosal 

E. A. May, Poplar, Cal. 

I heartily subscribe to your published 
platform. I think it would be a good idea 
to print a large number of them on small 
slips of paper just large enough to fold once 
and go in an envelope. Then let every 
person advocating them buy 500 or 1,000 
and send one in every letter he mails. It 
would publish them and make people think 
about them. 

A VICTIM OF JVATIOJVAL "BAfiKS 

John W. Adams, Arthur, I. T. 

I have just been reading the July number 
of your Magazine. Your suggested plat- 
form would be hard to beat, I think. What 
you have said of National Banks is timely. 
Here they charge us from 15 to 30 per 
cent, interest for the use of money. I 
know because I have paid it. The law 
allows only 8 per cent., but they beat 
the law by adding the interest to the face 
of the note. Tom Watson's is doing much 
to open the eyes of the people. Go on and 
talk louder and more if you can. 

The " Free Lectures to Washington 
Negroes" is a pointer for the South. Such 
practice is indeed a gross practice. The 
white people of the country ought to be 
proud to get at such information, and ought 
to remember it on election days. 

A CO/tVE'RG 

W . R. McClanahan, Thomas, W. Va. 

I beg to offer the following suggestions to 
your political platform for 1908: 

Paragraph 5 should have a clause as to 
price paid for any property, especially when 
bought from the Trusts. 

Paragraph 9 should provide a severe 
punishment for all public men that have 
betrayed the trusts placed in them by their 
constituents, and a disbarment from any 
office of trust or honor. 

May success crown your efforts for the 
good of the people. 

A heretofore Republican. 



UHE T^/I/t^/ICE^/I 

W. T. Anderson, Bowling Green, Ky. 

In answer to your request for a line on 
your proposed platform, will say good enough 
for anyone. Nothing bad about it, but I 
have thought for some time that the Initi- 
ative and Referendum is a sufficient plat- 
form for any party. That is the key that 
unlocks the chest which contains a panacea 
for all our national ills. With it the Pro- 
hibitionist can secure his hobby if he can get 
a majority of the votes. The Socialist can 
force a divide-up provided he can secure 



A ft I/4'DO'RSEMEJWU 

W. J. Hull, Greston, Ga. 

I fully indorse your 1908 platform. I 
would be pleased to support you on that 
declaration of purposes, and if there is not 
something done in that line, the corpora- 
tions and railroads will take this country. 
It seems that the reformers could unite 
on something like that and carry the 
country. Yours for reform. 



IJfl&IA&IVE A/fD 'REFE'RE/fDUM 

T. C. Wright, Gadsden, Ala. 

I have read the July number of your 
Magazine and must say I am well pleased 
with it. I have been in the reform move- 
ment since 1892, and am in for the war 
during my natural life. 

I notice your platform and can only add 
one thing — that is, the Initiative and Refer- 
endum. With that it would be O. K. 

I heard you speak at Gadsden, Ala., 'way 
back in the nineties, when you were first a 
candidate for Vice-President, and have been 
an admirer of you ever since, and have 
been proud to cast my vote for you at every 
opportunity and hope to have that pleasure 
again, as I have never scratched a ticket 
opposed to organized hypocrisy and never 
expect to. Go on with the good work. 
There are scores of the old guard in Ala- 
bama still with you. 



AJV ABSOLUTIST 

A. Hilton, Alexandria, La. 

Just received in the last day or two the 
July number of your Magazine in which you 
make a platform for 1908, and ask that a line 
be dropped you. Now I will make my plat- 
form, viz: "Absolute Free Trade with all the 
world and the Single Tax upon the value of 
land to support all Government." My plat- 
form is shorter than yours and would do a 
great deal more good. The Income and 
Inheritance Tax would not be needed. Ask 
Tom T . Johnson, Mayor of Cleveland, if he 
does not c'.gree with me, etc. I am eighty-two 
and a half years old and getting feeble in body, 
bat 1 can think yet. 



A SUGGESTION 

W. F. Hogue, Marion, Ala. 

I think your platform for 1908 is all right, 
and I suggest Bryan and Watson for the 
ticket. What do you think about it ? 



CRADX/ATED VROTE'RT.y TAX 

W. V. Marshall, Berlin, Pa. 

Referring to your proposed platform for 
1908, would not plank 3 be vastly improved 
by substituting the graduated property tax 
for the systems you specify? I think so, and 
for these among other reasons : 



608 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



As to the graduated income plan, it con- 
forms to the principle that the taxes should 
be imposed in proportion to the ability to 
pay. So does the graduated property plan. 

Thus far the two systems are alike, the one 
answering as well as the other; but beyond 
this they differ, with everything against the 
income method and in favor of the graduated 
method. 

The income tax will not prevent the over- 
due concentration of wealth. Even if the 
mighty money makers were compelled to give 
up, in the form of Government revenue, a 
little larger share of their extraordinary 
profits, they would not be prevented by the 
income tax from continuing their combina- 
tions. And as long as they can continue them, 
they can harvest back the extra sums they 
pay out as tax, by twisting the screws a little 
tighter at the one point to make up for what 
they must yield at the other point. 

The graduated tax does not permit them to 
recoup themselves in this way, for its special 
function is to prohibit monopolistic combina- 
tions, and if the capitalists cannot go into 
these combinations they will be without the 
machinery for making up to themselves the 
extra taxes they will, under the proposed 
system, be obliged to pay. 

The inquisitorial ism and prying into pri- 
vate affairs necessitated in the assessment of 
an income tax would render it so obnoxious 
as to bring about its repeal, whence we would 
be where we are at present. 

No extra inquisitiveness would be required 
in the graduated method, because the taxes 
would be levied in the same manner as they 
now are — upon the lands, mines, manufac- 
tories, stores, and other plainly visible prop- 
erties, the values of which can be ascertained 
without prying into the peculiarly private 
affairs of individuals. 

Those who reported their incomes fairly 
would be brought into unfair competition 
with the dishonest who resorted to conceal- 
ments, lying and perjury to avoid divulging 
what were their real incomes. 

There could be little opportunity for mis- 
representation and evasion in the case of the 
graduated property tax, for it has to deal, 
like our present direct system, with the 
visible properties themselves instead of with 
the invisible profits of properties. 

Then why not abandon the income plan 
for this more improved method of laying the 
taxes in proportion to the ability to pay? 
Why not seek a method that will work to the 
end of righting the present distorted state 
of industrialism while working to the other 
object ? 

As to the inheritance tax, why adopt the 
position of condoning an evil for pay? 

And why employ a measure that leaves 
exploitation to speed rampant until the ex- 
ploiter has ended his race of grab and get? 

Why legalize a plan that renders immune 
the undying rival-crushing and thieving 
trust? 



Why use a system that unaffects the colos- 
sal monopoly either directly or indirectly in 
ownership interests so distributed that no 
one member is sufficiently wealthy in his own 
right to materially feel the tax? 

Why not abolish the business of rivalry- 
crushing by any one man or set of men, in 
any one or set of forms, by graduated prop- 
erty-tax, inducing to competitive and honest 
methods, on the part of all, and by all from the 
beginning to the end of their industrial 
careers ? 

Why not prevent the hurts, rather than 
permit the same and then look to be recom- 
pensed on account thereof at the grave? 

As you offer your platform as a suggestion 
I move to amend by substituting the gradu- 
ated property tax for the taxes proposed 
in plank 3 and ask, "Why should .not the 
amendment be adopted? " _, 



ENTHUSIASM FOK- DIP^ECT 
LEGISLATION 

Jerome C . Swihart, Rochester, Ind. 

I have just finished reading your sugges- 
tive platform for 1908, in your Magazine, and 
as a Democrat and best of all an American 
citizen, I heartily indorse the greater part of 
it. That which I do not indorse I do not 
understand or have not given it sufficient 
thought to intelligently pass judgment upon 
it. 

I am particularly infatuated with the first 
clause, namely, "Direct Legislation ; election 
of all officers by the people ; and the right of 
recall." If this clause could be adopted by 
the people, it would be equal to a second 
Declaration of Independence, and would 
effectively make good the utterances of the 
immortal Lincoln, "That a government of 
the people, by the people, for the people, 
shall not perish from the earth." 

If a public office is a public trust, why 
should not the people pass upon who shall 
fill the office? 

If after electing an individual to a public 
office, the public should consider that the 
public could be better served by his recall, 
why should not that power be vested solely 
in the people ? When public officers are in- 
debted to the people for the position which 
they occupy, and when they must answer 
directly to the people and not the interests 
for their official actions, then, and not until 
then, will they secure the greatest good to 
the greatest number, which is the prime ob- 
ject of civil government. I cannot conceive 
of anything which would bring about the 
much desired reform so quickly and effec- 
tively as the adoption of this clause, and I 
candidly believe that the political party 
which supports it will crown their efforts 
with success. 



ON TAR^IFF FOU. 'REVENUE OJVLy 

E. W. Ferguson, Jr. , Long Pine, Neb. 

You ask your readers to write you con- 
cerning their opinion of "A Political Plat- 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



609 



form for 1908." In general I think it is 
good, and very good. Nor would I suggest 
any radical change except in the second 
plank. There is no argument for tariff of 
any kind that can stand before investigation. 
I believe I am not alone in this view. I 
believe that more people have read and 
accepted the truths of Henry George's 
"Protection or Free Trade" than have 
followed him on the "Land Question." At 
best, the advocates of "Tariff for Revenue 
only" can only claim that it is a means of 
gaining a revenue, apologize for it, and 
apology does not make good argument. 
Let us denounce "Duty on Imports" and 
advocate "Income and Inheritance Tax" in 
lieu thereof. Then we will have something 
we can defend from start to finish. I 
believe that you will find it is only the 
old Bourbon-Democrat that advocates 
"Tariff for Revenue," it being a sweet 
morsel to roll under his tongue. The 
younger generation of reformers have their 
doubts of its efficacy or else are pronounced 
"Free Traders." 

Your advocacy of Direct Legislation; 
doing away with Federal Courts; Munici- 
pally Owned Utilities ; Government money, 
Greenbacks without the exception clause ; 
Hostility to the National Bank System; 
Government economy ; Opposition to an ex- 
tensive navy ; and Colonization ; Ship and 
Mail subsidy; and advocacy of Parcels Post, 
Savings Banks and extension of Rural Free 
Delivery meet my heartiest approval. 

GER^SE COMMENT 

D. H. Welch, Winchester, III. 

In reply to your suggestion on platform, 
would say in regard to plank number six of 
the financial question, all money to be 
created by the Government to be full legal 
tender for all debt, public and private, every 
dollar to be at a parity — the gold dollars, the 
silver and paper. Then we can pay our 
debt. Then we will have sixty or seventy 
dollars per capita. We may well say that 
we have no money in circulation. Money 
don't circulate. Checks are the only things 
that circulate now. Go to the bank, give 
your note, then check your note out. No 
special objections to the platform. I 
always thought the Omaha Platform was too 
radical, but I never made any kick. I 
think your suggestion on platform good 
enough. No change of name. People's 
Party. 



_SI GICKE& FOK- 1908 

J. E. Scanlan, Bee Branch, Ark. 

In your July number of Watson's Maga- 
zine you set forth a National platform that 
all the people would be benefited by such 
form of Government. T hope you will pro- 
duce this same platform in your August 
number and keep it standing, headed as 
follows : 

October, 1906 — 9 



For President in 1908 
William R. Hearst, of New York 
For Vice-President in 1908 
Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia 
I have always been a Watson man, but the 
Populist Party and its leaders are not a class 
of glory for themselves. We believe in the 
greatest good to the greatest number. The 
fact of it is all reform parties work for the 
interest of the masses and not for class legis- 
lation. I believe with such a ticket and 
platform we can elect the next President and 
Vice-President. Mr. Hearst is as honest and 
brave as you are and all the people who have 
known you for years know that you come up 
to the standard of reform. 



UHE TL^/I&FOP^M ^IJWT) OUHEP+- 
UOPICS 

R. T. Butler, Cincinnati, O. 

I would substitute for article No. 2 of 
your platform "All articles manufactured 
or controlled by a trust on the free list." 
But if you think this is not broad enough 
and that article. No. 2 should stand, then I 
suggest at least that the last four words 
"and for revenue only" be left off. This is 
an old and meaningless Democratic phrase 
that has been worn threadbare in years gone 
by until it rasps on the ear of many voters 
when they hear it spoken. Then, too, 
when we once get a properly graded income 
and inheritance tax, which you properly 
provide for, we will need no tax on imports 
"for revenue only." 

Then I would add one more article favor- 
ing a graded land tax. The article in 
"Letters from the People," July Magazine, 
under head of "Does It Mean Tenant Farm- 
ing?" is illustrative of the necessity of such 
provision. The income tax would not cover 
the necessity for the reason that the great 
fortunes that already exist in the country, 
when they are no longer allowed to be used 
in exploiting the country, would be con- 
verted into lands in million-acre tracts to be 
used as deer parks and hunting grounds 
that would practically bring no income, so 
that the income tax could be avoided. 
This is now done in England. 

Now, as I am not writing this for publica- 
tion, but simply in hope that it may take 
up some of your spare time and keep you 
from wandering through the woods and 
lanes and writing some more of those pastoral 
editorials that make a man feel that he is 
once more a barefooted boy, and with pants 
rolled up and a fish-pole in hand is just ready 
to start down to the creek past the old 
swimming-hole, where, after taking a swim, 
he is to go on and fish in the old mill-pond, 
I want to ask you a question or two. If 
you want to answer in the Magazine you can 
do it by publishing the questions only. If 
the Advance plow sells in this country for 
$18 and is sold in South America for $9, it 
is pretty good evidence that there is at the 
very least $9 profit in its manufacture. 



610 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



That being the case and there being plenty 
of field and plow timber in this country, 
what is to hinder anyone from going into 
the business of making plows just like the 
Advance plow? 

I do not understand that there is any 
patent to protect the Advance plow, so one 
can be made just like it and sold, say, for 
$12 or $14, which ought to catch the farmers' 
trade and stop the sale of the Advance at 
$16. You know we Populists believe in the 
law of competition and of supply and 
demand. If there is a plow trust and that 
trust should put prices down to cost of pro- 
duction to kill competition, then the article 
I suggest in place of article No. 2 in your 
platform would remedy the evil if free trade 
would remedy it. 

One of the evils the American consumer 
suffers from is the undue importance he 
attaches to a name on trade-mark. For 
instance, if some man makes a plow exactly 
like the Advance and as good in every par- 
ticular or even better, he is yet unable to 
use the name "Advance" on his plow, and 
for this reason and no other the average 
buyer will of his own accord pay two prices 
for the "Advance " and be happy over it. 

CP^I&ICI-TM OF UHE TL^/IUFOF^M 

Edwin Lehman Johnson, Memphis, Tenn. 

You publish "A Political Platform for 
1908" composed of eight extremely large 
planks, upon some of which the people will 
be neither ready to vote nor to stand till 
1 91 2, and some of which will be impossible 
of adoption before 2008, and then you say: 
"What do you think of it? Drop us a 
line." Assuming that the humor of the 
request is unconscious and that you do not 
object to two or more lines upon such a large 
subject, I will comply with your request. 

If you really wish to suggest a platform 
upon which members of all parties except 
anarchists may stand, provided said mem- 
bers be honest men, I respectfully suggest 
the following modification of your platform 
for 1908 : 

Strike out all planks but the first and re- 
write that as follows : 

The Honesty Party's Platform for 1908. 

The nomination of all candidates of what- 
ever party to be in legalized primary elec- 
tions whereof the absolutely necessary 
expenses shall be paid from the public treas- 
ury, whether city, county, state or national, 
and all other legitimate expenses borne by 
the candidates and their friends whereof full 
report and publication shall be made. The 
same regulations to apply to the final elec- 
tions. Bribe-takers and bribe-givers to 
be forever disqualified from vote and office 
both in primary and final elections, and any 
informant giving evidence which shall se- 
cure the conviction of any bribe-taker or 
giver shall receive from the public treasury 
a sum equal to the bribe given or taken by 
the convicted person. 



All ballots or votes for all candidates to 
be secret ballots and no voter to be held 
accountable to any person or organization 
for his vote. 

All candidates shall announce prior to 
primary election their platforms and be 
subject after election to recall by their con- 
stituents for violation of their announced 
platform, or for conduct unsatisfactory to 
a majority of their constituents when ex- 
pressed in a legalized primary properly 
called for such expression. 

To such bodies of men elected under the 
above platform you may safely leave the 
discussion of all questions of public interest 
and their enactment into suitable legisla- 
tion. 

Until we do have an "Honesty Party," 
which can call for and exact obedience in all 
emergencies from a majority of the members 
of all parties irrespective of party lines, none 
of the things you are fighting for are obtain- 
able. With such an honesty party all of 
the things you are contending for worth 
while will be obtained as soon as the people 
are ready for them. 

Nominations dictated by bosses, and 
secured by fraud or the money power, are 
the curse of the hour. All platforms and 
all planks should give way to securing the 
honest expression of the people's will in this 
year of coming grace, 1908. 



IS HE W_SlTSOf4 TL^/ITFOP^M 

John Wood, Chicago, III. 

In regard to the political platform for 
1908, I would suggest the following addition 
to your proposition number one: "Direct 
nomination of all candidates for public 
office at the primaries. The primaries of all 
parties to be held on the same day and all 
the voters of each political subdivision to 
vote at the same polling place." If ever 
you had participated in the primaries of 
Chicago or any other large city where the 
grafting bosses of the different parties are 
hand in glove, you would surely realize the 
great necessity for a strong and powerful 
hand to insure to the people an even break 
on primary day. 

As a substitute for proposition number 
three I would suggest the following: "Ex- 
empt from taxation all labor values." You 
are liable to conclude from this that I am a 
strict adherent of the theory of the "Single 
Tax." I wish to disabuse your mind of this 
idea by explaining that out of a total revenue 
necessary to pay the municipal expenses of 
the City of Chicago, amounting to nearly 
twelve million dollars, more than six million 
dollars were raised by license fees of all kinds. 
It is my opinion that all license fees should 
stand or be fixed as the people should 
determine, but I do not think that the 
owner of land should have his taxes in- 
creased because he has been energetic 
enough to build a house one story or ten 
stories high upon that land. I do not believe 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



611 



it is right to make the taxes of a man who 
has cleared a farm in the forest one cent 
higher than the man has to pay on the same 
area of land immediately adjoining. The 
same argument that applies against the taxa- 
tion of improvements on land also applies 
against the taxation of personal property with 
the additional argument that ninety-nine out 
of every hundred men who pay personal 
taxes are perjurers. Therefore taxes on 
the improvements on land, on personal 
property and on incomes necessitate an 
espionage into strictly private affairs that 
is very disagreeable to the American spirit 
of independence, encourages perjury, and 
above all is a tax on the energetic man who 
does things and who is the cause of all of the 
increase in land values all over the country. 
I feel absolutely sure that all of the owners 
of great fortunes whom I know it is your 
purpose to reach with an "income tax" 
will antagonize with far greater energy the 
proposition to exempt labor values from 
taxation, because they realize very well that 
the enactment of such a law would im- 
mediately increase the taxes of all unused 
coal, iron, oil, lumber and other valuable 
lands from 500 to 1,000 per cent. 

I wish you would ask for the views of 
your readers on this question. I do not 
think a discussion would hinder the progress 
of radical democracy. 

In regard to proposition number four, I 
wish to plead that I am probably not as 
well posted as I ought to be. If you think 
there are enough of your readers in my 
position to justify a thorough explanation 
of this plank, I wish you would in the next 
issue. Here is the way I stand : I know 
that the present United States judges are 
the creatures of corporations because they 
would not have been confirmed by the 
United States Senate if they had ever been 
known to possess views antagonistic to 
corporate greed. Therefore, I always thought 
they should, like Congressmen, be elected by 
the people in the political division over which 
they may have jurisdiction. Now, if these 
judgeships were abolished, before whom 
would those persons be tried who are guilty 
of the violation of United States laws? 

I do not think at the present time there 
could be an improvement on the balance 
of your platform. 
Note by Editor: 

Congress could create courts to try and 
punish violators of Federal laws. In other 
words, Congress has the power to limit the 
power of the lower Federal courts, where 
the devilment originates. 



MICHAEL "B^/tKUJIIJ* 

Wilbur F. Bryant, Ponea, Neb. 

A few days ago I picked up a copy of 
your Magazine (April, 1906), in which I 
noticed an article on Michael Bakunin, who 



is called a Russian Populist by the writer 
of the article. 

Now there is much in this article which is 
interesting and very much with which I 
would fully agree, but an intelligent and 
well-informed writer cannot afford to be 
inaccurate in historical statements, for if 
he is, people are likely to distrust any other 
statement which he may make. 

The writer of the article referred to says 
that Bakunin was in prison in the Castle of 
Schlusselburg in 1849 an d that he died in 
the dungeon of that castle. It is very 
doubtful if Michael Bakunin ever saw the 
inside of the Castle of Schlusselburg. He 
was tried by the German Government and 
sentenced to death. His sentence was 
commuted to imprisonment for life. He 
was then turned over to the American 
Government, which went through the same 
process. Finally he was given over to 
Russia, his native country. He was in 
prison for a time at St. Petersburg, but was 
finally banished to Eastern Siberia. He 
obtained leave to settle as a colonist in the 
Amur country and escaped through the 
United States to Switzerland. Leaving out 
the details of his subsequent life, it is suf- 
ficient to say that he died peacefully in his 
bed on the first day of July, 1876, twenty- 
seven years after the writer says he was 
consigned to the Castle of Schlusselburg. 
By the way, Bakunin was not turned over 
to the tender mercies of Russia till 1850 
instead of 1849. 

FF+-OM _SI F^ETlTBLIC^rjV 

Pierre DePew, Nyack, N. Y. 

Although I am a Republican, still I am 
liberal in my views, and agree with most Of 
your views as expressed in your political 
platform for 1908. 

1. Direct legislation of all officers except 
President. This should, however, be modi- 
fied in present form. 

2. Necessaries of life on free list. I agree 
with you on this point, that duties should 
not be for protection, as we have too many 
monopolies now. 

3. Income and inheritance tax. O. K. 

4. I agree in the suppression of all Federal 
courts. 

5. Public ownership and operation of 
public utilities. 

6. Money system changed. I approve of 
this and No. 5. 

7. I agree with the sentiment of this, 
except raval expenditures should not be 
stopped, but should be made lower. I 
think that our colonies are essential to the 
nation, and that the Philippines should not 
be free, as they are not as well fitted for 
self-government as are the people of Porto 
Rico. 

8. I agree entirely with the points in this 
and with postals savings banks, if they can 
be safely managed. 

Can you inform me as to the address of 



612 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Senator La Follette, as I would like to 
write for his speech on railroad rates? 

Do you know where I can obtain the 
following books: "Protective Tariff De- 
lusion, " by Mrs. Marion Todd, and "Pizarro 
and John Sherman" and "Right of Wo- 
man," by the same author? 

Editor's Note. — Mrs. Todd could proba- 
bly furnish the books. They are out of print. 

"Who's Who in America" gives Madison, 
Wis., as Senator La Follette 's address. 



I/4'DO'RSES WAT~TOf* TLATFOB^M 

John M. Kellogg, Fall River, Kan. 

I indorse your plank platform for 
1908. I think that it is a sound creed, 
sound enough, honest enough for any 
honest, patriotic American citizen to be 
in favor of. I think the People's Party 
ought to adopt your platform at the 1908 
convention. Then pull together for the 
reforms formulated in Hon. Thomas E. 
Watson's platform until we get them made 
into law. Then if the people want more 
reforms, it will be time enough to strike 
tent and march further. 



•DIHECG LEGISLATION If* CRECO/f 

A. D. Cridge, Echo, Ore. 

Your platform is all right enough, but if 
you would cut out the last seven planks it 
would be better. With Direct Legislation 
the people can get the other planks — if they 
want them. Without Direct Legislation 
they will get stones instead of bread from 
any Congress the plutes will permit to be 
elected. 

Here in Oregon the people are still voting 
for Abraham Lincoln — that is, they think 
they are — and the state is from 14,000 to 
35,000 majority Republican on National 
candidates and questions. They elected 
and re-elected a Democratic governor. 
The first time because of a scrap among the 
followers of the Elephant; the second time, 
June 4th, last, because Governor Chamber- 
lain stood up and fought like Andrew Jack- 
son for the spirit, as well as the letter, of the 
Direct Legislation amended State Consti- 
tution, against a lot of Republicans who 
laid a scheme to do away with it. The 
Republican candidate was a pretty good 
man, too, but he had sneered at public 
ownership and was coy in indorsing Direct 
Legislation, and Republican plutocrats whis- 
pered too loud about some deep-set scheme 
to do away with the blankety-blank Refer- 
endum and Initiative. With the help of 
the Insurgent Republicans, who are Lincoln- 
bred and Democratic in principle, Chamber- 
lain held the fort last time, and he is pretty 
sure to do it again. 

The people of Oregon went, the same way 
Maine did for Governor Kent several dec- 
ades ago, for the Referendum and the 
Initiative. They are still for it. They 
extended its principles by additional amend- 
ments adopted by enormous majorities on 



the 4th of last June. They adopted two 
years ago, by the Initiative, a genuine 
primary law, and this time they elected 
their own United States senator. He is 
accused of being a bad man and a plutocrat. 
I don't know that he is any better than 
some who are worried over his delinquencies, 
but this is certain : that when the undis- 
mayed W. S. U'Ren, the father of Direct 
Legislation in Oregon, needed help and need- 
ed it like the Arkansas farmer needed his 
six-shooter after carrying it twenty years 
without using, Jonathan Bourne came to 
the front with the help that helped carry 
the amendment through two successive 
legislatures. It had to go through two in 
succession in order to be submitted to the 
people. Bourne might have done like 
other millionaires at that time, and bought 
steam yachts or established a private den 
of infamy with the money. He fought for 
the election of the United States senators by 
the people long before it was popular in 
Oregon, and all that he ever did that his 
enemies howl most about was try to be 
elected senator by the legislature some 
years ago, and using the methods then in 
vogue and still relied upon when rich men 
desire to be admitted to the den of forty 
thieves beneath the dome of the Capitol at 
Washington. Bourne is the first of a pro- 
cession of men to sit in the United States 
Senate as the untrammeled choice of the 
people. 

He will sit alongside of such men as 
La Follette and Tillman when he gets there. 
If he don't, they'll hang him when he gets 
within rope's length in Oregon. 

Well, what I was going to call your atten- 
tion to, Tom Watson, was this — the people of 
Oregon are right up and coming every time 
for Direct Legislation, but they are shy on 
the other planks of your platform. They 
are very much like other people in other 
states, too. With Direct Legislation the 
people can get anything they want. They 
can be rallied quicker for that than any- 
thing else. He got leading men, rich and 
poor, in all parties to take off their coats for 
Direct Legislation. They wouldn't pull 
together for anything else under heaven. 
Some of them have never pulled together 
since, and never will. The people roll the 
names Referendum and Initiative under 
their tongues flippantly, without difficulty; 
now they are used to it. 

I don't see but what your platform is all 
right as far as it goes, but the first plank 
means all the rest, if the rest are wanted. 
Whoop it up for Direct Legislation. It 
scares the plutes worse than publicity does 
a packing-house trust. Try it. 

A/V&I-SOCIALIST 

John White, Hot Springs, Ark. 

Your Magazine is a timely instructor 
against the nonsense of collectivism and 
social ownership. Your reasons are un- 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



613 



answerable and convincing to all who read 
them. I say "nonsense," because the ad- 
vocates of Socialism would turn the world 
back, blot out civilization. 



Afi O-BJECT.LESSOJV FOU US 

Henry B. Ashplant, London, Canada. 

The extent to which popular delusions are 
firmly held and indorsed by well-educated 
men is strikingly shown in that most inter- 
esting pamphlet on "Progress or Revolu- 
tion" from the virile pen of Goldwin Smith, 
much commented on recently by reviewers. 
On page 27 appears the following remark 
in criticism of a certain school of fantastic 
money theorists, viz: " A paper dollar is not 
money, but a promissory note, payable by the 
bank of issue, at which, when the note changes 
hands, gold passes from the credit of the giver 
to that of the taker." This belief is no doubt 
sincerely held by the venerable education- 
ist who thus places on record a statement 
expressing a delusion which commands 
popular acceptance to the disadvantage of 
its victims. Whatever might be true out- 
side the Dominion of Canada, here a paper 
dollar is certainly money ; it, however, cer- 
tainly is not true that a bank-note, issued 
by a Canadian chartered bank, transfers 
gold from the credit of the giver (bank) to 
the credit of the person receiving the bank- 
note. As a matter of fact, verified by our 
chartered banks' published statements 
(few "business men" understand a bank 
statement when they read it, so that literary 
men may be pardoned similar weakness), for 
the right to issue a bank-note the Canadian 
chartered banks transfer 5 cents on the 
dollar only of gold security to the people of 
Canada, on a loan basis bearing 3 per cent, 
interest. The balance represents confidence 
and a transfer of no gold values whatever; 
the original capital stock of the shareholders, 
being transferred into gilt-edged securities 
such as Government bonds, is not available 
as gold to transfer to the credit of a bank-note 
holder. Goldwin Smith as a foremost 
thinker and educationist evidences the 
extent to which most intelligent public men 
are victimized by a popular delusion that 
is the greatest asset of our capitalist system. 
It is quite true that a bank-note issued by 
a Canadian chartered bank has the same 
purchasing power in circulation to absorb 
a product of labor as a gold dollar possesses 
in circulation ; that is why it is so easy to be 
deceived. If a citizen gives a "promissory 
note " to a chartered bank for, say, an 
accommodation (at par) of $100, and gets 
over the teller's counter $50 in gold, and 
$50 in bank-notes equals $100; or issues 
his checks against an account for that 
amount, every one of these dollars can 
absorb the same volume of labor products 
(both brain as well as muscle products) 
when they get into circulation; the paper 
dollar controlling as much of a business 
man's property assets as the gold dollar 



does. While this is true, it does not, how- 
ever, mean that "when bank-notes change 
hands gold passes from the credit of the bank 
to that of the note-holder. What it does mean 
is the exact reverse, viz, that in return for 
its bank-notes, worth a gold value of 5 
cents on the dollar, there is transferred to 
the bank a mortgage on real property, or a 
bill payable that has to be satisfied in prod- 
ucts at full value, in gold or its equivalent in 
labor products, for a sum equal to the face 
value of the bank-note, and every 5 percent, 
bank-note is charged at 1 00 cents against labor 
products by the business man who puts it 
in circulation. If Goldwin Smith and our 
brain-sweated business men once firmly 
grip the enormity of the fraud and its influ- 
ence to evolve inevitable conflict between 
the puzzled brain-worker and the wearied 
man of brawn and muscle robbed, by con- 
nivance with this method, of more than 50 
per cent, of his product, and charging the 
crime to his indignant employer, who is 
liable to the bank to redeem his notes payable 
at their face value in labor products, there 
will likely "be more doings" in the sphere 
of "high finance." Little wonder that 
Canada is fast settling down to the social 
stratifications with financial lines of demar- 
cation, common to Europe and the United 
States. Why should Canada foster such 
an importation of foreign "finance immoral- 
ity" and develop its abominable and avoid- 
able fruitage? We in Canada can secure 
"Progress" free from violent "Revolution" 
if we will ; if we, however, proceed on present 
lines violent revolution will be an inevitable 
result, for an educated brain will soon guide 
impassioned brawn and muscle to justified 
abolition of a visible enemy to social welfare. 
Such an enemy among others is the Char- 
tered Bank of Canada, but not more so than 
the national banks of the United States are 
to our neighbors, or the finance institutions 
of Europe back of the Russian autocracy 
(and other autocracies) are to the Russian 
people, who will ultimately free themselves. 
If we in Canada who boast so much do not 
get a pace on the Russian peasant will show 
Canadians how to secure freedom, while we 
are busy fastening on our own industrial 
limbs the shackles that both Russia and 
Japan give evidence of intention to throw 
overboard. 



SPELLING P^EFOP^M 

H. Clark, Sodus, N. Y. 

A word regarding spelling reform. 

The movement's slow progress is due as 
much to the mistakes of its advocates as to 
the indifference of the public. And it is for 
the purpose of calling attention to their 
chief mistake that this letter is being written. 
That mistake is the attempt to bring into 
use new characters for sounds not now hav- 
ing characters of their own. This is done on 
the supposition that there must be a sep- 
arate character for every sound — a sup- 



614 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



position not well founded. A little re- 
flection will show that there has long been 
in existence a better method of spelling — 
here called the digraphic method — which is 
as simple and as phonetic as the character- 
for-e very-sound method. Manifestly, if two 
characters can represent three sounds with- 
out confusion, there is a saving of labor for 
teachers, pupils, typesetters and type- 
writers. 

Nothing but utter confusion can follow 
any enlargement of the alphabet, and best 
of all no such enlargement is needed. 
Regularity is the great desideratum and 
that can be fully attained with the 26 letters 
we now possess. With that end in view, I 
have worked out and here present a simple 
plan of spelling reform based on our well- 
known 26 letters and 12 carefully chosen 
digraphs. All necessary sounds — 38 in 
number — are thereby represented and that 
phonetically and without confusion of any 
kind. Furthermore, with three, or possibly 
four, exceptions no special liberties have 
been taken with the letters. In almost 
every case they will be recognized as rep- 
resenting their best known sounds. The 
letters c, q and x are the three principal ex- 
ceptions alluded to. It will be seen that the 
ordinary use of these three letters in such 
words as sivil, kweer and aks is entirely un- 
necessary. As it happened that there were 
three other sounds out in the cold, I arbi- 
trarily assigned them to these letters. 
They are the sound of ch in porch, a in jar, 
and u in hut. These words therefore be- 
come pore, fqr and hxt. Q is also taken to 
represent o in not. Ey represents a in hate; 
ai, i in kite; yu, ew in few: and dh, th in thy. 
The consonant w being merely the un- 
accented sound of 00 in good may properly 
also represent the vowel sound, as e. g.,stwd 
for stood. By simple changes like these in 
the use of the letters we now have, English 
can be spelled phonetically and the ir- 
regular spellings which have annoyed and 
hindered every boy and girl who has ever 
studied English may be wholly eliminated. 
Many words, it is true, would be lengthened 
under this plan, but the total number of 
letters employed would be lessened as will be 
seen in the following beautiful poem taken 
from the Outlook. Instead of 437 letters 
there are now 408, a reduction of over 6 per 
cent. The reduction in the average English 
discourse would be less than that — perhaps 
only about 2 per cent. Study what I have 
said above and see if you can read this poem. 
It illustrates, I believe, a sane mode of 
amended spelling which both young and old 
would readily learn to read. 

ST. FRANSIS AT SAN FRANSISKO 

Ai met old leen St. Fransis in x dreem 
Weyding nee-deep thru dhi ashez xv 
Dhx solz dhat hee wqz helping xp tu hevn 
Wxr bxrnt awr rxng out xv dhx raidhing 
flesh. 



Sed ai, "Hwen neer x thouzand qr engxlft 
In sxdn indiskriminet distrxkshxn, 
And haf x milyxn homles qr, ai no 
Dhis rqtn wxrld most blakli iz akxrst." 

"Hwen heeroz qr az kountles az dhx fleymz; 
Hwen simpathi," sed hee, "haz opend waid 
X hxndred milyxn jenxrxs hyuman hqrts, 
Ai no dhis wxrld iz infmitli blest." 

Rqdman Gildxr. 



"RA.ILWA.y MAIL CLERKS 

H. M. Messenger, Lakewood, O. 

Your editorial in August Watson's on the 
Railway Mail Clerk will cheer 12,000 persons 
at least. You cannot know how your words 
in praise of the R. P. C. and for his better 
protection will advance our cause against 
danger of our work. 

Our national organization, the Railway 
Mail Association, has agitated this question 
and petitioned and resolved. What good 
we have done we don't know, except that the 
questions of steel cars and adoption of the 
Block Signal System have been kept before 
the Department at Washington and the 
people of the country as well. We need 
steel cars. They would do us the most good. 
Recently at Burbank, Ohio, the Erie Fast Mail 
took a tumble down the embankment, the 
mail car, an all steel one, the first in com- 
mission (and put on as an experiment), 
turned over three times and was only 
scratched and the mail clerks were entirely 
unharmed. This surely was a test. The 
baggage car, a wooden affair, was com- 
pletely demolished! 

It is true that our business is considered 
extra hazardous by some companies. All 
the New England companies will write 
Postal Clerks. The Union Mutual, Ver- 
mont National, State Mutual, Massachusetts 
Mutual, John Hancock and Connecticut 
Mutual. All these have solicited me for 
endowment and twenty Payment Life and 
seemed glad to get the business. But note 
the exception they make — some of them. 
After reading Allen L. Benson's "Good 
Insurance and Bad" in July Watson's, I 
decided to add term insurance to what I had 
Accordingly, I sent postals to ten companies 
having agencies in Cleveland. 

The State Mutual, Phoenix Mutual and 
Washington Life said they did not issue term 
policies to Postal Clerks. The Massa- 
chusetts Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, 
New York Life and Equitable, of New York, 
did not respond at all. The Connecticut 
Mutual did not answer for ten days. So 
out of the bunch just three would talk busi- 
ness at all. Those that responded, but 
would not write term insurance, were more 
than willing to sell me Endowment or 
Straight Life. 

The John Hancock agent assured me his 
company would accept me, but when my 
medical test was sent in they refused the 
application because my mother died four 



LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE 



615 



years after my birth, and they weren't sure 
but I might get consumption — some time! 
I've always felt they would not have been so 
fearful if I had applied for a "Gold Brick" 
policy. 

The Mutual, of New York, offered a seven- 
teen year deferred dividend policy, which I 
would not have at all. 

So all that was left me was the National 
Life, of Vermont. They offered me a ten- 
year, non-participating, non-renewable pol- 
icy for $12.09 a thousand, which I accepted 
gladly. ' 

The Provident Life and Trust and Penn- 
sylvania Mutual would not accept me at all. 
The Union Central charges 20 per cent. 
more. 

So I found that nearly all the companies 
would write Postal Clerks for expensive in- 
surance, but did not care to do business on a 
term basis. 



LET THE VEOVLE A.WA.K.E 

y. S. Stewart, Gratis, O. 

For fully thirty years I have spent time 
and money trying to get the people to see 
their own and possess it. Voted for Watson 
in '96 and did a lot of work. Threw home 
office aside trying to secure for the masses 
their rights. Organized in this county 
(Pueblo) number 45 of the Farmers' Alliance 
and have seen the people blindly turn their 
backs on their real friends, accepting in 
their stead worse than gamblers for gain — 
August Belmont, John Sherman, Ernest 
Seyd & Co. Today it is the railroads, 
Standard Oil, coal mines, etc. 

I am 63 years old (and would like to see 
the changes 37 more would make) and, of 
course, recollect well the leaps and bounds 
of business among men of small means from 
the close of our unhappy strife until the 
reinstatement of the blacks, together with 
the enslavement of the whites, in 1873. I 
witnessed again the tightening of the chains 
in 1893 and the effect of the calculating, 
cold-blooded dealers in human life and have 
noticed their blighting effects on the prog- 
ress of mankind, which will continue to 
retard the progress of and blacken with the 
clouds of their hell the efforts of unborn 
generations. 

I cut clear of the so-called Democratic 
Party when Grover was nominated the 
second time, as it was then plainly given 
out by him that the party favored the con- 
traction of our currency, which was only 
another way of saying, "Damn the people," 
or "Huh, one-half the people can be hired 
any time to shoot the other half, " along 
which line the slaveowners are yet acting 
and always will, if they can hoodwink the 
people in the future as successfully as they 
have during my life. 

No sane and honest man will say we have 
enough money to develop and carry on our 
industries as we should and would if we had. 



So, to cut my story short, for the sensible 
development and maintenance of our 
splendid country, we must have more money, 
as much as all the people need. Remove 
double interest possibilities, repeal special 
privilege laws, remove double taxation, 
notably that on realty sold and not therefor, 
cut down official salaries to a living only 
while in office, penitentiary insurance 
officers taking in any manner more of a 
salary than $2,000 per year and legitimate 
traveling expenses, take over the public 
utilities to the Government and guard their 
honest care by plain laws quick to ad- 
minister punishment of dishonesty, and do 
away with all combines whether of money 
or labor under severe penalties, maintain 
all humanitarian organizations and remind 
the people continually that we are fully 
3,000 years behind our privileges and that 
it is by their thoughtlessness, cunningness, 
dishonesty and ignorance that this great 
slaveholding clan are enabled to hold on to 
their power which greatly impedes hu- 
manity's onward, upward, God-given right 
of a higher civilization. 

Yours for the swift success of right. 



TOTUL1SM THE "REMEHy 

W. L. Hays, Sterling, Col. 

I write this to say that I am in hearty 
sympathy with your work and have supported 
the party since its formation in '92 until the 
last Presidential campaign when I voted for 
Parker on the Philippine question. I re- 
gard the holding of those people as subjects 
to our authority and our domination as a 
national crime and as a renunciation of the 
principles of our Government ; and the more 
apathy the public conscience shows on the 
subject the more the enormity of the crime 
looms up before my vision. 

I feel like approving President Roosevelt 
in his tinkering at reform ; but the best thing 
he ever proposed was a mere makeshift and, 
if ever so successful, all the good it would do 
would be merely temporary and would finally 
leave the public utilities corporations more 
firmly entrenched. I apprehend that after 
trying every expedient that can be proposed 
by any member or members of that party, 
they will finally come to see what the 
People's Party saw in 1892, and conclude 
like sensible people that the only way for 
the public to protect themselves is for the 
public to do its own work and own its own 
property. Public ownership of public util- 
ities, the initiative and referendum and the 
imperative mandate adopted as the funda- 
mentals of our Government is where they 
will all land after a while ; but in the mean- 
while our really great men must put in their 
time educating the people, while schoolboy 
statesmen like Roosevelt and politicians and 
corporate tools like Aldrich and Depew run 
the Government. 





TTiomasly/W&faon . 



[Note. — Reviews are by Mr. Watson unless 
otherwise signed.] 

"The Bible, the Baptists and the Board 
System." By J. A. Scarboro. Price 
one dollar. J. A. Scarboro, publisher, 
Fulton, Kan. 
Religious books are sometimes considered 
dull by those who are hard to please. There 
are some unreasonable people who would 
rather split rails than to wade through 
Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," or Bax- 
ter's "Saint's Rest," or Taylor's "Call to the 
Unconverted." Fortunately, however, the 
number of readers thus hard to please is 
comparatively few. Most of us appreciate 
ecclesiastical literature very highly, and I 
remember with vivid distinctness the im- 
pressions which as a boy were made [upon 
my plastic mind by Parson Brownlow's 
"Great Iron Wheel Examined." "The Iron 
Wheel" was written by the great Baptist 
divine, Elder J. R. Graves, but I never 
read it. Brownlow's Examination of Graves's 
book was so exceedingly comprehensive in 
its nature that the reader felt content to stop 
where Brownlow left off. 

The book whose title heads this review is 
the most interesting religious work which has 
come into my hands in many a long day. 
The manner in which Brother J. A. Scarboro 
"goes after" other Baptist brethren is re- 
freshing in the highest degree. The facts 
set forth in this book are important. The 
purpose of Brother Scarboro was to expose 
the methods of the convention Board system 
of Foreign Missionaries. To say that his 
attack is direct, his statements positive, and 
his arraignments powerful, is to put the case 
with great moderation. The general im- 

Eression made upon the mind of the reader 
y the evidence which Brother Scarboro 
has accumulated is this: That the Board 
which controls Foreign Missionaries is in 
danger of going the road which all close cor- 
porations have traveled. Our poor human 
nature is just so constituted that no set of 
men can be intrusted with too much power. 
In such cases selfishness, tyranny, favor- 
itism and corruption will develop. If the 
tens of thousands of individual Christians 
whose contributions from year to year sup- 
port foreign missions should read this book 
there is no doubt whatever that the golden 
stream would be shut off until some ex- 
planation is given which satisfies the mind 
616 



of the average man the Board has not been 
guilty as charged in this book. 

Listen to this paragraph from page 116: 
"Down in Texas they (the Baptists), had a 
great convention; they prayed for the Spirit 
and announced His presence ; then they 
turned to and, in violation of the constitu- 
tion, unseated a representative of an as- 
sociation, libeled him in doing it, and then 
changed the constitution to fit the action. 
They turned him out because he continued to 
criticize extravagant salaries, nepotisms and 
sham reports." 

If these charges are true, then some re- 
form work is necessary for the good of the 
denomination and of the Christian world. 
If, on the other hand, the charges are false, 
they should be refuted in order that heredi- 
tary Baptists, like myself, should not have 
their minds disturbed and their reflection 
disordered by statements of that character. 
Consider this statement which I find on page 
132: " Just as Catholic Bishops peremp- 
torily dismiss pastors and missionaries, so the 
Baptist Mission Boards dismiss mission- 
aries." If that statement is true it will give 
a painful shock to every member of the 
great Baptist denomination. If the state- 
ment is not true, there should be a refuta- 
tion which will carry conviction throughout 
the land. In Chapter VII of the book 
Brother Scarboro gives a narrative of the 
manner in which the Board has treated 
Rev. A. J. Diaz, an Apostle of Cuba. This 
chapter was an eye-opener to me, as it will 
be to all who read it. 

In Chapter VIII there is an account of the 
manner in which the Board has treated Rev. 
J. S. Murrow, the great Missionary, whose 
lifelong work has been productive of such 
glorious results in the Indian Territory. 

In that connection, the reader must par- 
don me for relating an experience out of my 
own life. In the year 1874, at the close of 
the sophomore term in Mercer University, 
I was adrift in the world, and was looking 
around to find work to do. Having sold at 
auction a few books in the City of Augusta, 
I had gone down to Lawtonville, in the 
County of Burke, where the Baptists were 
holding an Association. At this gathering 
of the people I hoped, by making diligent 
inquiry, to learn of some neighborhood 
where I might open a country school to 
teach the children during the day, while I 
studied law at night. I remember that it 



BOOKS 



617 



was the glorious Indian summer-time of the 
year, but I recall no incident more vividly 
than that of a Baptist missionary who was 
in attendance upon the Association. As an 
illustration of what could be done by faith- 
ful work among the red men of the West, 
he had brought with him to Georgia an 
Indian chief, who had been converted to 
Christianity under his ministrations, and 
who had himself become a Minister of the 
Gospel. Thirty-two years have passed and 
gone since then, but with absolute clearness 
I recall the earnest, honest, intelligent face 
of the white missionary, and the labored 
speech, in broken English, of the Indian 
chief as he struggled to address his white 
brethren. The name of this devoted mission- 
ary was J. S. Murrow. I now learn, with 
profound pain, that this Soldier of the Cross, 
who for nearly forty years has devotedly 
borne the banner of Christ among the red 
men of the Indian Territory, has been sub- 
jected to heartbreaking humiliation by a 
Convention Board, sitting in Atlanta, Ga., 
and evidently puffed up to the bursting 
point with the supreme importance of its 
own "brief authority." 

Chapter IX is head -lined like this, 
"Convention Board System guilty of Con- 
spiracy. — Libeling a Baptist Preacher and 
Editor who Plead for Reform and Exposed 
Evils. — Violating Constitutional Rights. — 
Trial and Conviction Without Evidence. — 
Crushing the Disturber." 

It has been the custom of this Magazine 
to take no part in religious controversies. 
That rule will not be departed from, but as a 
hereditary Baptist and a warm sympathizer 
with those who are engaged in good work 
in every field, I earnestly call the attention 
of the Baptist denomination to the arraign- 
ment of the Board system made by the Rev. 
J. A. Scarboro. 



Studies in Socialism. By Jean Jaures; 
with translator's introduction by Mil- 
dred Minturn. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York and London. 
A book calculated to arouse considerable 
ire among those dogmatists who, as Bernard 
Shaw declares, believe in the "antiquated" 
ideas of Karl Marx. And one sure to make 
a favorable impression in the ranks of those 
who, intelligently or otherwise, oppose 
Socialism. Jaures himself is an Opportunist 
or Reformist in method and believes in 
getting all he can as fast as he can along 
the line of reform, never, however, losing 
sight of the ultimate aim of Socialism : The 
collective ownership of the means of produc- 
tion and democratic operation and manage- 
ment by the workers. 

Jean Jaures, a successful bourgeois (when 
shall we see the proletarian movement 
headed by proletarians?), is a member of the 
French Chamber of Deputies and also 
editor of a Socialist daily paper, "L'Human- 
ite," in which the "studies" in the present 



volume originally appeared. He is fortunate 
in having a translator who knows something 
more than mere turning of French sentences 
into English. The translator's introduc- 
tion, covering 88 pages, gives a more com- 
prehensive view of Socialism than the 
Jaures essays themselves. 

"Although Socialists differ upon many 
points," says the translator, "they all agree 
upon the following main definition : 

"Socialism is the doctrine that the means 
of production (that is, capital, land and 
raw materials, or, in other words, all wealth 
which is used for the creation of more 
wealth) should not be owned by individuals, 
but by society." 

On the question of distribution, the trans- 
lator says: "The Socialists do not hope to 
distribute wealth equally among all the 
workers, or on the basis of the needs of the 
different individuals. What they do hope 
to do is to distribute it in such a way that 
men will be rewarded as nearly as possible 
in proportion to the services they perform." 
Equality of distribution without regard to 
services rendered would mean Communism, 
although some Communists hold to the 
motto, 'From each according to his ability, 
to each according to his needs.' 

"There is also a division of opinion among 
the Socialists," continues the translator, 
"as to the administrative organization which 
is to manage the collectively owned wealth. 
Some believe that the ownership of the means 
of production should be vested in the 
nation and administered by a trained 
bureaucracy ; others have the ideal of a less 
centralized politico-economic system, under 
which the commune or township would be 
the principal owner and employer of labor; 
others imagine associations of producers, 
each group owning and controlling the plant 
at which it works itself ; while still others 
think that the future society will be a com- 
bination of all these forms, some property 
being vested in the nation, some in local 
government bodies, and some in the organ- 
ized trades." 

In passing, it may not be amiss to quote 
Edward Bellamy's opinion on this point 
("Equality"; Appleton, 1897): 

"Do I understand" (asked Julian) "that 
the workers in each trade regulate for them- 
selves the conditions of their particular 
occupation ? 

"By no means " (answered the superin- 
tendent). "The unitary character of our 
industrial administration is the vital idea 
of it, without which it would instantly 
become impracticable. If the members of 
each trade controlled its conditions they 
would presently be tempted to conduct it 
selfishly and adversely to the general interest 
of the community, seeking, as your private 
capitalists did, to get as much and give as 
little as possible. And not only would 
every distinctive class of workers be tempted 
to act in this manner, but every subdivision 
of workers in the same trade would presently 



618 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



be pursuing the same policy, until the whole 
industrial system would become disinte- 
grated, and we should have to call the capi- 
talists from their graves to save us. The 
regulation and mutual adjustment of the 
conditions of the several branches of the 
industrial system are wholly done by the 
general government." — pp. 55-56. 

' ' But such discussions, ' ' says Jaures's trans- 
lator, "have, after all, an interest which is 
chiefly academic; they cannot become of 
practical moment for many years." 

The "pressing practical question" which 
Miss Minturn sees "that touches Socialists 
very closely and divides them very bitter- 
ly," is the Method — the steps Socialists 
should take to establish Socialism. "Upon 
the question of Method, as it is called, 
European Socialists are separated into two 
schools; the one, followers of the great 
militant, Karl Marx, are called Revolution- 
ists, Marxists, or Orthodox; the other, 
Opportunists, Reformists, Revisionists, Fa- 
bians." Here in America these schools are 
represented by the Marxist Socialist Labor 
Party, with Daniel De Leon at its head ; and 
the Opportunist Socialist or Social Demo- 
cratic Party, headed by Eugene V. Debs. 
Substantially all the American Socialists are 
of the Opportunist school. 

"The Revolutionary Socialists do not 
necessarily believe in the use of force to 
obtain their ends. Indeed, as Jaures points 
out, the partisans of the General Strike are 
the only ones who hope to win by other than 
legal political methods. But what they do 
believe in is the possibility of establishing 
the Socialist system in its entirety, after they 
shall have obtained political power" — a sort 
of birth, like the hatching of a chick from an 
egg, as distinguished from the continued 
growth of a tree. 

"The Reformists, on the other hand, 
think that the coming change is too complex 
to be instituted as a whole. Their ultimate 
ideal is the collective ownership of capital, 
but they believe that they can best reach 
that ideal by introducing reforms gradually 
as the strength of their party and economic 
conditions admit, instead of hoping to apply 
a cast-iron dogmatic system as a unit." 

Only a passing glance can be given to 
M. Jaures's chapters, "The Socialist Aim," 
"Socialism and Life," "The Radicals and 
Private Property," "Rough Outlines," 
"After Fifty Years," "Revolutionary Ma- 
jorities," etc. His style is pleasing, clear, 
convincing. In defending his Opportunism 
he, in the chapter "The Question of Method," 
ridicules the idea that the proletariat will 
acquire power suddenly because capitalism 
cannot longer maintain itself. 

"It is not," says M. Jaures, "by an un- 
expected counter-stroke of political agita- 
tion that the proletariat will gain supreme 
power, but by the methodical and legal 
organization of its own forces under the law 
of the democracy and universal suffrage. 
It is not by the collapse of the capitalistic 



bourgeoisie, but by the growth of the pro- 
letariat, that the Communist order will 
gradually install itself in our society. Who- 
ever accepts these truths, which have now 
become necessary, will soon understand the 
precise and certain methods of social trans- 
formation and progressive organization 
which they entail. Those who do not com- 
pletely accept them and those who do not 
take the decisive result of the proletarian 
movements of a century very seriously; 
those who revert to the Communist Mani- 
festo so obviously superannuated by the 
course of events, or who mix remnants of 
old thought that no longer contain any 
truth with the direct and true thoughts 
suggested by present reality, all such Social- 
ists condemn themselves to a life of chaos." 

C. Q. D. 

The Cities of Spain. By Edward Hutton. 
With 24 illustrations in color, by A. 
Wallace Rimington, A. R. E., R. B. A., 
and 20 other illustrations. The Mac- 
millan Company, New York. 
A book of charms and irritations. The 
writer's faults are so many and so flagrant 
that they would condemn him utterly were 
it not for his many excellences. A felicity 
and delicacy of expression, a soul that feels 
deeply and vividly, an interesting person- 
ality, a familiarity with the art of many 
lands that adds much to his presentations, 
a rather unusual breadth and individuality 
of view — these, in spite of extravagances and 
failures, not only raise the volume decidedly 
out of the ordinary, but make it altogether 
worth while for certain moods and certain 
temperaments. 

In his conclusion the author writes: 
". . .In this book, as ever, I have only 
ventured to speak of myself, of myself if you 
will, apropos of Spain. . . . It is the art 
of Literature that I practice, and by my 
achievement or failure in this art I am to be 
judged." Behold in these few words the 
book and the man. Nay, behold them both 
in the single letter of a single word, for it is 
indeed "Literature," not literature, that the 
man practices in this, his book. Not as an 
adequate illustration of the distinction be- 
tween the two, yet as throwing a tiny ray of 
light, it might be suggested that his use of 
"only" in the quotation above, while it may 
be allowable under the inevitable license of 
"Literature," is hardly sanctioned by the 
usages of the word as spelled without a cap- 
ital. A small matter, truly, and not in it- 
self worthy of mention, yet — illuminative. 

His request, nay, his demand, that 
what he has written shall be judged not as a 
book of travel sketches, but as an exposition 
of himself in which "facts" concerning 
Spain are "not to become of too much im- 
portance," is eminently right and just. Yet 
it is hard to forego the whimsy of wondering 
what Maupassant, ardent advocate of this 
same canon of criticism, that the writer is to 
be judged solely according to his intention, 



BOOKS 



619 



would have felt after reading these three 
hundred pages done into honeyed purple 
with a faint suggestion of yellow back- 
ground. 

The trouble, it would seem, lies in the 
author's having set forth his emotional im- 
pressions in prose rather than poetry. It 
would have been better to put into verse 
even his philosophy and didactics than to 
compel the medium of prose to convey the 
outpourings of his heart and the riot of his 
senses. 

As either prose or poetry it must prove 
too great a demand upon the reader's re- 
sponsiveness. First and worst, there is no 
relief, no light and shade. Bits of it are ex- 
quisite and the description of his disagree- 
able railway journey in the beginning might 
be termed even masterly, but as one reads 
on, emotions and sensibilities, even the most 
unused, are called upon again and again so 
that the effect, though at first renovating, 
pleasurable and almost inspiring, soon be- 
comes bewildering, fatiguing and fruitless. 
To him Nature and every inanimate object 
is vividly personified ; the impressions of one 
sense are to be expressed thoroughly only by 
translation into terms of another; all the 
world is but an extravagant expression or 
reflection of human emotion. We can bear 
with him through the "passionate flight of 
arches," the "unlimited desire of its height," 
a city's "hands lifted in prayer," "lucid 
streets," buildings "like thoughtful prayers, 
perfectly expressive, or like the immense 
laughter of youth, or like the gorgeous un- 
fulfilled boasts of a young man," and hun- 
dreds and hundreds of similar descriptions, 
according to our particular abilities, for 
nearly every one of these might, alone, be 
excellent I in its proper place. Unhappily, 
they only too often are not in their proper 
places and in the awful aggregate are both 
overwhelming and futile. The writer lacks 
the sense of proportion, without which 
there can be neither true Literature nor true 
literature, Art nor art. It is well enough to 
enjoy the grapes of a locality, but if one de- 
scribes them as "grapes more precious than 
uncut stones" there is likely to be some 
difficulty when one wishes to pay propor- 
tionate tribute to something really stupen- 
dous in architecture or to the very soul of a 
people. Needless to say that, lacking a 
sense of proportion, he is utterly devoid of 
any sense of humor, without which there 
can be no — well, many things. 

The natural results of this lavishness are 
repetition of epithet and a groping after 
terms of even more fulsome praise or more 
complete damnation. When Don Quixote, 
and, later, Shakespeare's Miranda, is spoken 
of as "my dear darling" the feeling aroused 
is something akin to nausea. The imagery is 
often drunken, at times even Bacchanalian, 
with an undercurrent of sensual unhealthi- 
ness now and then coming unpleasantly near 
the surface. His style certainly has nothing 
of the ascetic dignity with which he char- 



acterizes Spain. There is, too, monotony 
even in his feelings, and his proclivity for 
rhapsodies on the desert, the "large few 
stars," the hour after sunset, etc., etc., be- 
comes wearisome. 

In his opinions, Mr. Hutton is most de- 
cided, which is both good and bad. That his 
judgments may at times be hasty or based 
on too slight foundation will now and then 
occur to the reader. For example, his in- 
tense dislike for Americans suggests that 
though a certain type of our tourist abroad 
deserves all that can be said against him, 
this type is not the universal one, not even 
of those Americans who do not stay at home, 
and that the other types, either in strange 
lands or on their native heaths, are likely to 
be overlooked exactly because they take care 
not to make themselves prominent. It re- 
calls that other Englishman with similar 
opinions none too courteously expressed 
to whom it was finally suggested that he had 
perhaps been unfortunate in his letters of 
introduction. Again, the author's attitude 
toward the Spanish bull-fight, while one 
of the broadest and most thoughtful we have 
encountered, is weakened by the fact, a weak- 
ness in this case frankly confessed, that he 
is constitutionally incapable of appreciating 
"sport" in any form. It is also something 
of an index to the man himself. 

Those more interested in the subject- 
matter than in the style will, of course, find 
a Spain as seen by another, not as they have 
seen or would see it. Whether or not one is 
dependent solely upon Mr. Hutton 's im- 
pressions for one's own concepts, the book, 
despite its extravagances, should be a pro- 
nounced help toward a full understanding of 
the Land of the Dons. The architect, es- 
pecially if he has himself covered the ground, 
and, in lesser degree, the lover of art, will 
find much both to dispute and to enjoy. 

A. S. H. 



The Land of Pardons. By Anatole le 
Braz. Translated by Frances M. Gost- 
ling. With 12 illustrations in color by. 
T. C. Gotch and 40 other illustrations. 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 
This altogether delightful book on the 
famous and picturesque religious festivals 
of the people of Brittany, written as it is by 
one who is both Breton and artist, will not 
only completely win the hearts of those who 
have seen Brittany, but should charm even 
the veriest stranger. For it is not only the 
Pardons themselves that form its contents, 
but the customs, legends, history, the very 
soul of that unique branch of the Celtic 
peoples which has held so bravely, so tena- 
ciously, to its traditions and racial integrity 
that even today the strenuous efforts of the 
French Government to Gallicize the Bretons 
have made but comparatively small headway 
against their stubborn resistance. True, 
the French language is gradually spreading 
throughout "Armorica," and since Anne of 
Brittany's marriage to the French king the 



620 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Breton's sturdy and hereditary independence 
has been gradually weakening, the educative 
methods of modern civilization conquering 
more surely than the mere brute-force of ages 
past, but still it is the Breton tongue that 
opens all doors, it is the Bretons who most 
vigorously champion the Church against 
the State (just as in the times of the Vended 
they were the last upholders of the Royalist 
cause and as in antiquity they clung most 
firmly to the old Druid worship), still they 
hold to the old ways, the old costumes, the 
old beliefs, a people pitiable and magnificent 
in their loyalty and their patient, ever- 
enduring hope. 

To those who have themselves witnessed 
some of the almost numberless Pardons and 
may feel more or less familiar with the coun- 
try this love-labor of M. Anatole le Braz will 
prove a tremendous surprise. They will 
find that they have seen only from afar, and 
that they have not begun to comprehend. 

In his preface the author, quoting from 
Le Goffic, sets before us this idea of the 
Breton Pardon: 

They have remained unchanged for over two 
hundred years, and nowhere else will you find 
anything so deliciously obsolete. They have no 
resemblance to other festivals. They are not 
pretexts for feasting, like the " Flemmis Ker- 
messes," neither are they revels like the Paris 
fairs. No! their attraction comes from a higher 
source. They are the last vestiges of the ancient 
Feasts of the'Dead, and there is little laughter in 
them, though much prayer. . . . 

Speaking in his own person : 

Only toward evening, when Vespers are over, 
do the festivities begin. And what simple pleas- 
ures they are; how innocent, how primitive! The 
good folk flock together in the shade of the walnut 
trees, on the greensward, beneath the spreading 
elms. And there, under the eyes of the girls, 
seated demurely on the surrounding slopes, the 
youths challenge one another to wrestle, to race, 
to jump with the long pole, while the old men look 
on and applaud. Last of all the dance unfolds 
its mystic circles, serious yet lively, with an in- 
describable harmony and simplicity in its rhythm, 
that reminds one of its sacred origin. 

The home-goings in the dusk are exquisite. 

Again : 

One can never understand what an important 
position the Pardon of his parish or district occu- 
pies in the mind of the Breton, unless one is born 
of the race and has known the legends from child- 
hood. 

As a little one he is led to the Pardon in his beau- 
tiful best clothes, and the old folks seem like 
fairies who bathe his face in the fountain, so that 
the power of the sacred water may be to him as a 
suit of diamond armor. 

Grown a youth, it is here that he ties the knot 
of friendship with some pretty one, beside whom, 
not so very long ago, he sat, a mere child, at 
catechism. Lately she has increased in grace as 
he in vigor, and now he engages himself to her, 
giving himself over entirely, without set phrases, 
in a furtive clasping of hands, in a look. 

All the dearest and most sacred emotions of his 
life are connected with this poor house of prayer, 
with the mossy inclosure planted with elms or 
beeches with the narrow horizon bounded by a 



hawthorn hedge, and with the mystical atmos- 
phere perfumed by incense. 

When at last he grows old, it is to his Pardon 
that he comes to watch the joy of the young, and 
to taste, before leaving this world, that short rest 
which the good genius of the place, the tutelary 
saint of his clan, has prepared for him 

The volume is devoted to five typical 
noted Pardons — the Pardon of the Poor 
(Saint Yves), at Minihy; of the Singers, at 
Rumengol; of Fire (Saint Jean-du-Doight), 
at Traoun-Meriadek ; of the Mountain (Saint 
Ronan), at Loeronan; of the Sea (Sainte 
Anne de la Palude), at La Palude. 

Everywhere are interwoven the fascinat- 
ing old Celtic legends, harking back to the 
times when the Druids held sway, and em- 
bodying the soul of a people. It is a book 
of fairy-tales for grown-ups as well as a con- 
tribution of more solid worth. 

The illustrations are excellently chosen and 
— rare thing! — some of the colored ones, in 
addition to being true to life in their lines 
and unusually happy in effect, reproduce 
the colors of the originals. The index at 
the end is a most commendable addition. 

A. S. H. 



Cities of Northern Italy. By Grant Allen 
and George C. Williamson. In two vol- 
umes. Illustrated. L. C. Page & 
Company, Boston. 
Those who have been wise and fortunate 
enough to travel in Europe with one of 
Grant Allen's former books as guide and 
educator will need no more than the above 
announcement to send them in quest of 
the present volumes. Grant Allen, by a 
rare combination of literary excellence and 
common sense, stands out as a pioneer 
among those who write of the cities of 
Europe for the benefit of tourists. To 
those who can never have the privilege of 
travel his books will not only perhaps 
come nearer being a substitute than any 
others, but will in any event prove a de- 
lightful as well as an unusually instructive 
pastime. 

One is reluctant to apply the term 
"guide-book" to books so admirable in 
conception, purpose, structure and culture, 
and, though in the last analysis they must 
be so classed, they are guide-books only 
in the highest sense of the word and stand 
apart. The purpose, as set forth in the 
introduction to the "Cities of Northern 
Italy," is not to direct the traveler through 
the streets of an unknown town or to give 
information about cab-fares and hotels, 
but "to supply the tourist who wishes to 
use his travel as a means of culture with 
such historical and antiquarian information 
as will enable him to understand, and 
therefore to enjoy, the architecture, sculp- 
ture, painting and minor arts of the towns 
he visits." 

There is a glorious absence of the "tech- 
nique of the studios and the dialect of the 
modeling-room." "What I aim at is 



BOOKS 



621 



rather to expound the history and meaning 
of each work, to put the intelligent reader 
in such a position that he may judge for 
himself of the esthetic beauty and success 
of the object before him." Ordinarily 
the writer who discourses on works of art 
either slavishly repeats the dicta of eminent 
authorities or, if he ventures at all upon 
originality, too often bases everything upon 
the ridiculous hypothesis that art is a thing 
detached from the world whose expression 
it is. How refreshing the point of view 
that beholds works of art, not as the prod- 
ucts of this or that artist, but as "material 
embodiments of the spirit of the age — 
crystallizations, as it were, in stone and 
bronze, in form and color, of great popular 
enthusiasms!" 

Grant Allen died before he could com- 
plete the present book, but he had advanced 
far enough for his friend, Mr. Williamson, 
who had to some extent worked with him 
and was familiar with his purposes, to 
finish the work from his copious notes. No 
small credit is due Mr. Williamson, for, 
though one may at times find fault with 
his use of English, it must be remembered 
that it is one thing to write one's own book, 
and quite another to write another man's. 

The first volume is devoted to Milan 
alone ; the second to Verona, where is the 
finest brick architecture in Italy; Padua, 
which represents Giotto's best; Ravenna, 
famous for its mosaics, and Bologna, redo- 
lent of Francia. One is almost tempted to 
say that the traveler in Italy "cannot 
afford to be without it," and everyone, 
whether traveler or stay-at-home, would 
be the better for reading it, for "Italy is the 
schoolroom of the world, " or, as it is less 
kindly said in a recent article by Henry 
Dwight Sedgwick, on "The Novels of Mrs. 
Wharton," it is "the country where human- 
ism, culture, art, may most rapidly be 
got up." And surely Italy, as here repre- 
sented, makes good these claims. 

In cover, typography and general appear- 
ance the two volumes are exceptionally 
pleasing, and the illustrations are both 
numerous and excellent. 

A. S. H. 



Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine and 
the Loire Country. By Francis Miltoun. 
With many illustrations reproduced 
from paintings made on the spot by 
Blanche McManus. L. C. Page & 
Company, Boston. 
"This book is not the result of ordinary 
conventional rambles, of sightseeing by day 
and flying by night, but rather of leisurely 
wanderings, for a somewhat extended period, 
along the banks of the Loire and its tribu- 
taries and through the countryside dotted 
with those splendid monuments of Renais- 
sance architecture which have perhaps a 
more appealing interest for strangers than 
any other similar edifices wherever found." 



Mr. Miltoun's books have already won 
their place with the millions of Americans 
interested in anything that deals with the 
rich store of knowledge, culture and charm 
to be drawn from the old countries of 
Europe, and this latest addition to the 
series will find immediate favor. The idea 
of opening with a general survey of the 
territory is most commendable, and affords 
the reader opportunity to assign proper 
values and proportions to material that 
would, without some similar device, natu- 
rally be difficult of intelligent and thorough 
absorption. The book itself is delightful and, 
one might say, comfortable. For there is 
no breathless rushing from place to place, 
and no habit of dreary pauses for cloying 
rhapsodies that defeat their own end. Per- 
haps there is for many a trifle too much 
dwelling upon architectural aspects, but 
surely there is excuse for that, when the 
subject-matter is the chateaux of the Loire. 
There is, moreover, ample measure of 
history and legend of the customs and 
character of the people, of the appeals of the 
country itself and of all else that goes to 
make the Loire-country a Mecca for the 
traveler. Best of all the author and the 
artist have their heart in their work, "and 
the heart giveth grace unto every art." 
Those who have visited the "Chateaux 
country" will find the pleasure and profit 
of their journeyings immeasurably in- 
creased by a ramble through Mr. Miltoun's 
pages; those who have this land of heart's 
desire still before them will make the 
reality the more delightful by the reading, 
and that multitude who cannot hope will, 
since it is a substitute or nothing, find in 
this book a most happy one. 

The illustrations, many of them in color, 
are charming, and the numerous maps and 
diagrams form a valuable contribution to 
the general worth of the book. 

A. S. H. 



The Undying Past. A Novel. Herman 

Sudermann. Translated by Beatrice 

Marshall. John Lane Co., New York. 

Herman Sudermann, the famous German 

dramatist, is not familiar to Americans as a 

writer of novels. We have learned that the 

original of this book, "Es War, " was written 

long before the stage successes that have 

made him known throughout the civilized 

world. Sudermann withheld the book from 

publication for ten years after he had written 

it. A whole generation of our "novelists" 

rise and fall forgotten in that period. 

As one goes through the pages of "The 
Undying Past" further comparisons occur 
to the reader. He realizes that he is reading 
a novel, not a hodge-podge of "thrilling 
incident," "vivid characterization," "breath- 
less suspense," "unusual plot" — and all the 
other stale ingredients noted in a compli- 
mentary sense, by sophomore critics, anxious 
to have quoted in advertisements their say 



622 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



about the latest best seller. Also, we venture 
to say that the average reader of new books 
will find himself enjoying one of the lost 
pleasures of reading, for the simple reason 
that "The Undying Past" is actually a 
novel — not a great novel, but one of force 
and distinction. 

R. D. 



Lady Baltimore. By Owen Wister. With 
illustrations by Vernon Howe Bailey 
and Lester Ralph. The Macmillan 
Company, New York. 
"Lady Baltimore" is so far superior to 
"The Virginian" that through it Mr. Wister 
steps into a new rank among writers of 
English and American readers. His former 
success proved a "best seller" and may rep- 
resent one phase of our country's many 
phases, idealized to a most considerable 
degree, but "Lady Baltimore," while it 
idealizes less, is yet infinitely more delicate 
and sympathetic, and presents so much 
broader a view of the elements composing 
our national life that some enthusiastic 
critics have gone to the extent of proclaiming 
it the long-heralded "American novel." 
Not that, perhaps, but a book that does hold 
up to view many of the problems, sympa- 
thies, opinions and interests of present Amer- 
ica and, as a piece of fiction, claims in the 
highest degree that much-abused adjective 
"charming." Especially does it claim emi- 
nence as a just and sympathetic picture of the 
South, made more forcible by the constant 
juxtaposition of the Northern point of view. 
It is American to the. core and its tone is 
pleasantly optimistic with unshakable faith 
in our country's fair future. 

In it there are lessons for the North, the 
best the South contains being portrayed by 
loving hands, and other lessons for the South, 
which may well benefit by the contrast of the 
North's gentle blood and better feelings with 
the nouveau riche and the vulgarity and 
narrowness that too often lead the Southern- 
er to believe that he has neither friend nor 
understanding and appreciative countrymen 
on the other side of Mason and Dixon's 
Line. For both North and South there is 
the lesson of a common interest in a common 
country. 

There may at times be a slight super- 
abundance of letters and discussion, con- 
sidering it as merely a story, but the interest 
cannot flag and he who begins will finish. 
Mr. Wister 's hand is sure, his purpose high 
and never obtrusive, his humor true and 
delicate, his atmosphere delicious and his 
discrimination exquisite. The love-story 
moves surely and gently to a natural ending, 
and every character in the book stands out, 
not only a living person, but one whom there 
is both profit and pleasure in knowing. 
Nowhere is there awkwardness, nowhere a 
jarring note. For once a "popular" book 
deserves its popularity — and more. 

A. S. H. 



The Bitter Cry of the Children. By John 
Spargo. The Macmillan Company, New 
York. 

Robert Hunter, author of "Poverty," 
writes an introduction to Mr. Spargo 's book, 
in which he says he counts himself "fortu- 
nate in having had a hand in bringing this 
remarkable and invaluable volume into ex- 
istence." Then Mr. Hunter explains how it 
happened. 

Undeniably "The Bitter Cry of the 
Children" is a remarkable book, and one 
that should be read by the every day man 
and woman as well as by those that make 
social conditions their study. Mr. Spargo is 
wrought up about the condition of the work- 
ing child, and, in general, about the condi- 
tion of the children of the poor. At times 
his feeling is perhaps too evident for effec- 
tiveness of argument ; but there is no escape 
from the mass and variety of statistics on 
which he founds his plea for reform. 

The agitation against the inhumanity of 
child labor is now under way and, though its 
progress may seem slow, nothing can stop it. 
On the other hand so painstaking and heart- 
reaching a study as "The Bitter Cry of the 
Children" is certain to make more insistent 
the underlying need for this particular and 
most vital reform. 

R. D. 



The House of Cobwebs. By George Giss- 
ing. To which is prefixed The Work 
of George Gissing, An Introductory 
Survey by Thomas Seccombe. E. P. 
Dutton & Company, New York. 
In each of these fifteen stories is the sound 
of Gissing's dominant note — money. In 
nearly all of them it is the dominant note of 
the story itself; in all, its powers as a factor 
in life are reflected from the author's own 
bitter struggle against poverty. It would 
seem that he could nowhere catch a glimpse 
of the world except through the muddy 
glass of coin of the realm — a point of view 
easily maintained, since civilization were 
impossible without its medium of exchange, 
and altogether justified, since he could write 
his truth in no other way. It is, further- 
more, within certain bounds, a far more 
severe arraignment of present conditions 
than any direct attack could hope to be. 
There is both pain and shame in seeing how 
the bodies, minds and souls of naen and 
women must find destiny in jingling bits 
of metal, and Gissing does not show us that 
other and occasional picture of man rising 
superior to circumstance, glorified, not 
stunted or besmirched, by the conflict. It 
was not his own experience, for though, in 
a way, he triumphed, it is hard to agree 
with Mr. Seccombe in his introductory 
survey that the man's work did not suffer 
from an existence ceaselessly cramped and 
tortured by poverty. There was that in 
Gissing which would have found artistic ex- 
pression in spite of anything short of phys- 



BOOKS 



623 



ical impossibilities. His want concentrated 
him almost entirely upon one limited field ; 
it lends itself more readily to belief that, 
even allowing for his classical bent, freedom 
of circumstance would rather have given 
him a wider choice of material than it would 
have rendered him diffuse or futile. As his 
actual life shaped him for the one thing, so 
would kindlier circumstances have shaped 
him to some other which would have had 
also the advantage of being his own choice 
and so have been, in the last analysis, prob- 
ably a truer and more adequate expression 
of himself. It may be said that he has a 
broad outlook, yet it is from only one window 
of a tower that he looks out upon the world — 
upon the other windows he turns his back. 
It may even be claimed with some justice 
that the intense feeling resulting from his 
life's limitations rendered him something 
of a partisan in the field he made his own. 

In most of the stories of the present 
volume the essential impression common to 
all is the deforming influence of the lack of 
money, or the desire for it, upon natures of 
a finer mold and latent possibilities. It is 
seldom physical suffering that is emphasized, 
except as a side issue, but one stares at the 
anguish of refinement chained to the vulgar, 
of better things crushed under an unliftable 
weight of sordidness, of souls twisted awry 
by the screw of want. In "The Pig and 
Whistle" this note is almost absent, yet 
it is a considered, though not a considerable, 
factor. In "Miss Rodney's Leisure" it is 
sounded only as part of the accompaniment. 
In "A Lodger in Maze Pond " and "The 
Riding Whip " it is more pronounced, 
though only a sub-motif. Less audible in 
" Humble bee ," it is none the less a keynote. 
In the others it makes itself heard above all 
the harmonies and discords. 

Mr. Seccombe's excellent introductory 
survey of Gissing and his work leaves little 
to be said except where one may venture to 
differ slightly in opinion. It is difficult to 
agree that Gissing shows no sense of humor. 
While it is nowhere prominent and always 
merely one of the sidelights he turns upon 
his material, it is nevertheless frequently 
discoverable, generally with a flavor of 
acidity. Gissing had too clear a perception 
of the proportion of life to be entirely 
lacking in this quality. 

He has been denied the dramatic quality; 
certainly there is nothing of the melodra- 
matic. May it not be that the dramatic is 
only relentlessly repressed? At least there 
is furnished constant incentive for the 
reader to supply the dramatic. Perhaps 
this is the better accomplishment of the 
two. 

Again, it would seem that Gissing is not 
so wanting in plot and structure as he is 
accused of being. It is a weak point, to be 
sure, from both the artistic and the popular 
point of view, and one finishes most of the 
stories in the present collection with a 



feeling of incompleteness. They more often 
than not impress one as fragments from 
longer works. There is no plot among these 
that could satisfy merely in its action and 
all at first glance suggest a study or charac- 
ter sketch rather than a trim and tidy short 
story. The incident, phase or step of 
character development may be in a way 
insignificant, and the structure is generally 
built with an eye to the material itself 
rather than to an iron-clad adherence to 
rule, but it is none the less there and it may 
be that the form of the true short story is 
approximated more closely than in many 
tales that meet both popular and carelessly 
formulated artistic requirements. 

There is too much strength in the material 
and too much felicity and finish in the style 
for one to pause long over a question of 
mold, and one is likely to read this book 
with an avidity creditable to the most 
formally perfect productions. In vital 
knowledge of most of his material, in his 
repression and compression, his exquisite 
nicety of word and in his ability to present 
living characters and realized situations and 
conditions, there is that which, while it 
cannot raise George Gissing to a level with 
the few best, insures him a place far above 
the multitude. 

A. S. H. 



Gabriel and the Hour Book. By Evaleen 
Stein. L. C. Page & Company, Boston. 
In this instance a monkish legend is used 
as the background for a sweet and plaintive 
child's book. "In those days — it was four 
hundred years ago — printed books were 
very few, and almost unknown to most 
people, for printing presses had been in- 
vented only a few years, and so by far the 
greater number of books in the world were 
made by the patient labor of skilful hands; 
the work usually being done by the monks, 
of whom there were very many at that time." 
So the chronicler indicates his theme and 
the period, then proceeding to tell a story 
that ought to please and inform youthful 
minds. The illustrator has not caught the 
atmosphere of the period as well as the 
writer has. Adelaide Everhart's color pic- 
tures have the medieval air, if a cigar-box 
picture has it. If not — ? 

R. D. 



Pipes of Pan. By Bliss Carman. L. C. Page 

& Company, Boston, Mass. 

In this volume are grouped the following: 
"From the Book of Myths"; "From the 
Green Book of the Bards;" "Songs of the 
Sea Children;" "Songs from a Northern 
Garden"; "From the Book of Valentines." 
Let us say right here that we like nearly 
all the poems in the book, liking the last 
sheaf the least ; and, often in the other pages 
admiring, to the point of marvel, the lithe- 
ness of line, the sure music of rhyme and 



624 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



rhythm, the absolute intimacy with nature 
that breathes in the poet's voice unfailingly. 

Now we shall cite an opinion of Bliss Car- 
man's work, recently published in the Lon- 
don Times: 

". . .He has that quality of which 
we have noted the lack in the poetry of most 
of his predecessors, a youthful gaiety and 
bravery. It seems, indeed, as if his country 
might be acquiring at last the power to 
express in poetry that enterprise, that 
adventurer-spirit which has hitherto been 
reserved for its affairs. . . . He is 
never sentimental, never afraid of passion 
any more than he is afraid of showing the 
learning and the mastery of his art that he 
too often misuses. And, if that temper be 
sincere, it may be the forerunner of an 
awakening, an outburst of poetry greater 
than any that America has yet produced, 
a poetry that shall be worthy of a great 
nation, and of the greatness of her earlier 
poets." 

Finally, hear what the poet himself says, 
in a quaintly humorous preface, as modest 
as it is unabashed : 

"It is a hearty old saying that good wine 
needs no bush. Why, then, should the mas- 
ter of a roadhouse hang out a sign letting 
folk know there is good drink within? 

"Consider the feelings of the landlord, 
poor man. At once nettled and abashed, 
he exclaims: 

" 'Pray, why should I stick a bough over 
my door? My tavern is well bespoke for 
miles about, and all the folk know I serve 
nothing but good, honest liquor — and mighty 
comforting it is of a cold night, when the fire 
is bright on the hearth, or refreshing on a hot 
day, either.' 

"'Nay, but,' says the stranger, 'how 
should a traveler know of this? You must 
advertise, man. Hang out your sign to 
attract the passer-by, and increase trade. 
Trade's the thing. You should be doing 
a driving business with a cellar like yours.' 

"'Huh,' replies the taverner, 'I perceive 
that in the city where you come from it may 
not be a mark of character in a man to rely 
wholly upon merit, but that if one would 
insure success, he must sound a trumpet 
before him, as the hypocrites do, that they 
may have glory of men, as the Word 
says.' 

"Tut, man,' says the stranger, 'look at 
your friend John Doe under the hill yonder. 
Does a wonderful business. Famous all over 
the country for his home-brewed ale, and 
his pockets lined with gold.' 

"'Yes,' says the host, 'John Doe is a 
good, thrifty man, and as a fine a comrade 
as you'd wish to find, selling his hundred 
thousand bottles a year. But the gist of 
the matter between us isn't all in quantity, 
I'll be bound. Quality is something. And 
as for myself I would as soon have a bottle 
of wine as a keg of beer any day. Wine is 
the poetry of life, in a manner of speaking, 
and ale, you see, is the prose — very good to 



get along on, but no sorcery in it. Three 
things I always say, a man needs have — 
meat for his belly, a fire for his shins, and 
generous wine to keep him in countenance 
with himself. And that's no such easy 
matter in a difficult world, I can tell you. 
'Tis wine that gives a man courage and 
romance, and puts heart in him for deeds 
and adventures and all manner of plain, 
wholesome love. And that, after all, is the 
mainspring with most men, hide it how they 
may. For whatever was done that was 
worth doing, and was not done for a woman 
or for the sake of a friend, I should like to 
know ? ' 

"'Maybe I hadn't thought of that,' says 
the stranger. 'You must have tasted some 
rare wine in your time.' 

"'Not so much,' says the other, 'but I 
was born with a shrewd taste for it, you may 
say. Moreover, I came of a people who 
were far farers in their day, and have been 
abroad myself more than once. So it comes 
you find the foreign vintages in my bins. 
There's some Greek wine I have, sir, that's 
more than a century old, I'll wager; and a 
rare Moon wine, as they call it, picked up 
in an out-of-the-way port, that will make 
you forget your sorrows like a strain of 
music; light wines from France, too; and 
some Heather Brose, very old and magical, 
such as the little dark people used to make 
hereabout in the times of the Celts long 
ago — and very good times they were, too. 
It is not these days that have all the wisdom 
ever was, you may be sure.' 

' ' ' You are not such a bad advocate , after 
all,' remarks the stranger. 'You speak 
very invitingly.' 

'"Step inside,' says the landlord." 

R. D. 



A Shropshire Lad. Lyrics. By A. E. Hous- 
man. John Lane Company, New York. 
A book of unusual charm and distinction 
is "A Shropshire Lad." We select two of 
the lyrics of which it is made up, and offer 
them as evidence of the qualities we em- 
phatically attribute to Mr. Housman's 
product : 

" 'Is my team plowing, 

That I was used to drive 
And hear the harness jingle 
When I was man alive ?' 

"Aye, the horses trample, 
The harness jingles now; 

No change though you lie under 
The land you used to plow. 

"Ts football playing 

Along the river shore, 
With lads to chase the leather, 

Now I stand up no more?' 

"Aye, the ball is flying, 

The lads play heart and soul; 

The goal stands up, the keeper 
Stands up to keep the goal. 



BOOKS 



625 



"'Is my girl happy, 

That I thought hard to leave, 
And has she tired of weeping 

As she lies down at eve?' 

"Aye, she lies down lightly, 
She lies not down to weep ; 

Your girl is well contented. 
Be still, my lad, and sleep 

"'Is my friend hearty, 
Now I am thin and pine, 

And has he found to sleep in 
A better bed than mine?' 

"Yes, lad, I lie easy, 

I lie as lads would choose ; 

I cheer a dead man's sweetheart, 
Never ask me whose." 



' ' Far in a Western brookland 

That bred me long ago 
The poplars stand and tremble 

By pools I used to know. 

"There, in the windless night-time, 
The wanderer, marveling why, 

Halts on the bridge to harken 
How soft the poplars sigh. 



"He hears; long since forgotten 
In fields where I was known, 

Here I lie down in London 
And turn to rest alone. 

"There, by the starlit fences, 
The wanderer halts and hears 

My soul that lingers sighing 
About the glimmering weirs." 

R. D. 



In Colonial Days. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Illustrations by Frank T. Merrill. L. 

C. Page & Company, Boston. 
These stories of the Old Province House at 
Boston acquaint one anew with the warm 
and fecund imagination, the delicate and 
firm style of the great New England novelist. 
The book is handsomely made and ought to 
serve admirably for gift purposes. The il- 
lustrations are good. 

H. E. V. 



Born to the Blue. By Florence Kimball 
Russel. L. C. Page & Company, Boston. 
A good boy's story of army life and ad- 
venture, evidently written by one fully in- 
formed about her characters and their sur- 
roundings. Healthy in tone, and stimulat- 
ing to the youthful mind. 

E. C. L. 



Lovers Pleading 

BY G. E. WARD 

WILD roses hidden in the hedge 
Surrender to the lips of June ; 
White lilies cloistered in the sedge 
Permit the kisses of the moon. 



And oh! my heart desires your love 
As never June desires a rose, 

And never the pale moon above 
Such passion for a lily knows: 

And yet your love I vainly seek; 

Unto my love no love replies ; 
No blush gives answer in your cheek, 

No passion lightens in your eyes. 

Ardent as June I watch and wait ; 

Pale as the moon I pace your sky; 
O Lady! be compassionate, 

Kiss me and love me, or I die! 



October, 190O — 10 



Every time one thinks about the tariff on 
lumber and wishes to express his feelings 
he finds the English language incapable of 
furnishing him the proper word. The 
average man has found out that "cussing" 
does no good after twenty years of effort, as 
far as that tariff is concerned. What forest 
lands remain in this country are fast passing 
into the control of trusts and big mining 
companies. The Hecla Copper Mining Com- 
pany, which is part of the Rockefeller Copper 
Trust, owns 90,000 acres of forest in Michigan 
and is constantly acquiring more. The cry 
of Shaw and his followers is "stand pat" 
and make no change in the tariff, although 
there are almost inexhaustible forests in 
Canada from which we could get lumber and 
preserve our own timber lands. — The Inves- 
tigator, Omaha, Neb. 

Do the laboring people know that Gover- 
nor Higgins signed a bill trusteeing wages 
over $12 a week in favor of the creditors of 
wage-earners? Did that job lot convention 
held in Malone, that swallowed everything 
and indorsed Higgins's iniquitous administra- 
tion, say anything of this? Oh, no, they 
poured standard oil on the troubled political 
waters and swallowed all things rotten. 

The laboring men of this state will bury 
Higgins under an avalanche of indignant 
ballots when they get a whack at him, for 
turning over all their wages over Si 2 a week 
to a trustee, to be held for their creditors. 
This bill strikes at personal liberty and the 
liberty of contract, and is a revival of the 
Connecticut blue laws or worse. No free 
people will tolerate any such interference 
with their private affairs, and when the 
wagee-arners get a whack at Higgins, who 
signed the measure, he will never know 
what he collided with. — Forum, Malone, 
N.Y. 



One of the most healthy signs of the 
times is found in the fact that every can- 
didate for any important office in Nebraska, 
as a prerequisite, instinctively hastens to 
put himself on record as in favor of regulat- 
ing trusts. — Custer County Beacon, Broken 
Bow, Custer Co., Neb. 



It is not only our commerce, but our 
national character that have been injured by 
the frauds and scandals now astonishing 
626 



the world. If the laws had been faithfully 
executed, such scandals would have been 
impossible. The greatest and most damag- 
ing of all these scandals is that the laws of 
the United States have not been faithfully 
executed — that rant, and hypocrisy, and 
connivance at crime, and political partisan 
success won by criminals with stolen money 
and hush-money, stand in the place of duty 
and morality. The people may applaud 
the spectacular rogues for a time ; but they 
will turn and rend them just as soon as they 
are undeceived. — Herald, Bolivar, Mo. 



That standpatters are not in a happy 
frame of mind is evidenced by the organ 
of the Protective Tariff League. That 
subsidized mouthpiece of the trusts and 
protected interests declares that the men 
in charge of the Republican congressional 
campaign indorse a statement attributed to 
John Hay, that "tariff revision is bound 
to come, but woe to the party through whom 
it cometh." This would indicate that the 
standpatters are trying to discount the 
effect of the election of a Democratic Con- 
gress and at the same time trying to arouse 
the protective tariff barons to the danger 
and make them "come down with the dust " 
liberally to prevent such a catastrophe to 
the trusts and combines. As that Republi- 
can statesman and standpatter, Senator 
Buckley, says that elections are carried by 
those with the most money, so all the tariff 
barons have to do is to come down with 
the boodle and the Republican Congressional 
Committee will do the rest. — The State, 
Providence, R. I. 



Can it be that there is graft in the ex- 
penditure of the money given for the relief 
of the San Francisco earthquake sufferers? 
A writer in the Joplin (Mo.) Globe says: 
"Bills for Si 5 7,599 for automobile service 
in the two weeks following the fire — more 
than was spent for milk, butter, eggs, bread, 
vegetables, drugs and clothing in the relief 
of 200,000 homeless persons — were presented 
to the finance committee today, and threaten 
to cause a scandal before the work of 
auditing is completed. The charges average 
$35 a day, and in some cases are much 
higher." — Ohio State Register, Washington 
Court House, Ohio. 






THE SAY OF OTHER EDITORS 



627 



Senator Burton and Senator Smoot 
have both lost their seats in. Congress ; one for 
paying too much attention to business, 
and the other for paying too much attention 
to the women. — Monitor, Mammoth Springs, 
Ark. 



W. J. Bryan, when in St. Petersburg, 
Russia, was asked whether he had dropped 
free silver, and for his opinion regarding the 
beef scandal, and replied: "No, I have not 
dropped free silver, but the question has 
become one of secondary importance. As 
to the beef scandal, the disclosures prove that 
monopoly leads to high prices and to de- 
terioration in quality. Inspections show 
evils that only anti-monopoly can uproot." 
— Texas Farmer, Dallas, Tex. 

The enormous Republican majorities in 
Pennsylvania in the past are not so wonder- 
ful since the light has been thrown on the 
corrupt bargain between the railroads, 
trusts and combines and the Republican 
politicians, and similar conditions prevail 
in New Jersey and other states ; but light is 
breaking on the cesspools of corruption. — 
Democrat, Gallatin, Mo. 

The income of the average American, 
according to United States census reports, 
is S650 a year, but the meat, ice, milk, 
grocery and other bills indicate that his 
outlay is much more. — Independent, New- 
man, 111. 



Charlie Schwab, of the Steel Trust, 
whose head was turned by his election to 
the presidency of that concern and whose 
antics in Europe, at Monte Carlo and else- 
where, caused his retirement from that 
position, is being considered as a possible 
United States Senator from Nevada, to 
succeed Francis G. Newlands, in 1909. He 
doesn't live in Nevada, but he has "invest- 
ments" there. He would be useful in pro- 
moting railroads and mining undertakings. 
Already the work for him has begun — before 
he has taken up his residence in the state. 
Talk about a rotten borough! If Schwab 
can get to the Senate from Nevada under 
such circumstances, the interests truly have 
the nation up for sale. Such maneuvering 
makes a mock of the system of govern- 
ment. It is a grim jest upon the people. 
Nevada will be exploited by the men who 
want Schwab in the Senate. It will be 
worked according to the latest method of 
the industrial manipulators. The state 
will be looted by the "industrials." Schwab 
is about as fit for Senator as Scotty of Death 
Valley, or the late Coal Oil Johnnie. The 
brazen effrontery of the scheme to buy a 
state for a plutocrat who never set foot 
in it for more than ten days is the cap sheaf 
of capitalistic corruption in politics. Still, 
why should we gag at Schwab and his 
methods? There are Clark, of Montana, 
Aldrich, of Rhode Island. There was Mit- 



chell, of Oregon, and Quay, of the plum tree. 
Schwab is no worse than any of these, except 
that, in addition to his determination to do 
what Addicks tried in Delaware, he is a little 
"dotty" as a result of his sudden wealth 
and prominence in the great Steel Trust 
steal. — Mirror, St. Louis, Mo. 

A word as to Mr. Watson and the great 
help that he has been to the cause of white 
supremacy during the present campaign in 
Georgia. Years ago, before anybody «ver 
thought of Mr. Smith making the race for 
Governor, Hon. Thos. E. Watson, in a public 
speech in Atlanta, pledged his help to the 
Democrats and to the white people of 
Georgia whenever they should decide to 
make Georgia a white man's state, and put 
the negro out of politics in Georgia for good 
and all. He has magnificently redeemed 
his promise in the present campaign. He 
has suffered along with Hoke Smith such 
political crucifixion at the hands of the rail- 
road owned and ring controlled organs of 
the state such as is rarely met with in politi- 
cal campaigns. But during it all Mr. Wat- 
son has continued to stand steadfastly to the 
cause of the people of the state and to his 
promise to help them redeem Georgia from 
the control of the railroad ring, and to make 
the old state forever a white man's state in 
its politics. Mr. Watson's help to the cause of 
the people in the campaign that has just 
closed has been second to none in the State of 
Georgia, and despite the fact that Farmer 
Jim, the Convict King, with his barbecues 
and workers carried Mr. Watson's own home 
county against Hoke Smith. — Herald, Au- 
gusta, Ga. 

Hon. Thos. E. Watson may smile at the 
fate of his political enemies, whose great out- 
lay of money and effort to defeat him in his 
home county was so overwhelmingly re- 
buked by the state at large, and that the 
pitiful effort to humiliate him at home re- 
acted on his enemies in their overwhelming 
defeat throughout the rest of the state. 

Perhaps the only one who will be unable 
to find one single crumb of comfort in the 
result of the election will be Editor Pendle- 
ton, of the Macon Telegraph. He got into 
a long and bitter debate with Tom Watson in 
which he was badly worsted. He raved and 
raled at the Populists because at last they 
had done what he had preached for years they 
should do, fight out our difference inside the 
dear old party, and then got licked. He 
wrote reams of double-column editorials, 
showing how Macon would be ruined if Hoke 
Smith should be elected, and his people 
showed what they thought of his political 
judgment by voting a majority in every pre- 
cinct contrary to his tearful advice and 
frantic pleading. But even he may find 
comfort in the thought that he stands 
pledged to support Hoke Smith for Governor, 
and perhaps Bryan and Watson in 1908. — 
Tribune, Augusta, Ga. 



628 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



If our naval and military expenses ever 
surpass or even equal our educational ex- 
penses, we shall be on the wrong track. If 
we ever spend more to inspire awe and 
fear in other people than to cultivate in- 
telligence and character in our own, we 
shall be on the road to the worst kind of 
bankruptcy — a bankruptcy of men. — Un- 
afraid, Posy County, Ind. 

The 'Railroad "Rate "Bill 

As the Railroad Rate bill has been amended 
by the Seriate, the Interstate Commerce 
Commission will be unable to fix railroad 
rates without subjecting its decisions to a 
complete revision by the courts on the whole 
record, and on both the law and the facts. 
This puts a weapon into the hands of the 
railroads which will enable them largely, 
it not wholly, to baffle the Commission in 
any efforts it may make at just regulation. 
It was what the railroad senators contended 
for, and what President Roosevelt at first 
said they should not have. Nor need they 
have had it. With such of his own party 
and such of the Democrats as were opposed 
to it, he could have defeated the railroad 
ring. They were, in fact, defeated when 
he came to their rescue by reversing his 
position and acceding to their demands. — 
The Public, Chicago, III. 

"Republican Cornerstone 

"Wherever the Republican Party is in 
power, there is corruption. With its present 
organization nothing else could result. One 
of the things that keeps that party in power 
is passes to all kinds of men, from Supreme 
Court judges down to the worker in every 
little country town. — The Investigator." 

That's the way the thing is worked in 
Lancaster County, Pa. The "boss" is head 
of the electric power and trolley system. 
He keeps enough of the country dupes 
"solid "with bribes of position and patron- 
age so as to "work" the rest of the back- 
woodsmen, and though they get to clawing 
the air in a local fight over the spoils they 
are all " cheek-by-jowl " when the "national 
Republican " bugle sounds, and they have a 
chance again to fight the "Democratic" 
Party, which is controlled by the same 
corrupt agencies. — American Whip, Lan- 
caster, Pa. 



When Heinze sold his copper mine, taking 
in part payment a senatorship from Montana , 
neither the buyer nor seller thought it neces- 
sary to consult the people of the state 
before closing the deal. — Sentinel, Gentry, 
Mo. 



The wave of reform is spreading through- 
out the country, and it begins to look 
as though every Republican in the state 
and nation will be swept from power. 
Someone may say that we wish so, and that 
the wish is father to our thoughts, and we 



will not attempt to deny it. — Citizen, 
Verdigree, Neb. ' 

Government Obvnerjhip Coming 

Municipal ownership is being hastened in 
all quarters by franchise grabs and other 
corporation robberies and extortions. The 
vast business enterprises, whose business 
interests are promoted by shady methods, 
even to the extent of carrying elections by 
fraud, will fall first under government 
control, and then will come government 
ownership. — Democrat, Pomeroy, Wash. 



The Columbus Enquirer-Sun thinks Roose- 
velt should send his "replies" by freight. 
We insist upon the charges being prepaid, 
if any are addressed to us. — Post, Headland, 
Ala. 



Probably it is in most respects as good 
a rate bill as we could expect to get, so long 
as such legislation is framed on the plan 
that whatever Senator La Follette proposes 
must be wrong. — The Index, Cumberland, 
Md. 



It is announced that, the rate bill being 
passed, the Senate will now take a "much- 
needed rest." And the public surely will 
be delighted at being able to follow suit. — 
Advocate, Parish, La. 



While the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission is about it, they might ascertain 
the differential on Muck-rakes and White- 
wash Brushes, from outside points to 
Washington. — Enterprise, Luck, Wis. 



Criminal Lata "Reform 

There are two reasons why criminal law 
reform is a pressing problem today. One is 
the repression by that reform of lynch law. 
The other is not less important. We need 
that reform, says an Atlantic writer, because 
the social condition of our day imperatively 
demands a substantial increase in the scope 
and power of criminal law, a system strong 
enough to meet the new and increasing 
requirements of our civilization for correc- 
tive and repressive criminal law. A system 
too complicated to deal out certain justice to 
common offenders, ignorant and brutal, poor 
in purse and influence, can never adequately 
deal with our new class of big business 
criminals, with the men who get rich by 
fraud, the corporation inflators and wreckers, 
the faithless trustees and grafting directors, 
the exploiters of municipalities, the mag- 
nates who give bribes and the bosses who 
take them, the trust operators who sin 
against honesty in business, who break the 
law against monopolies, who give and take 
forbidden rebates. How can predatory 
wealth, powerful, influential, often in- 
trenched in office, be punished by a system 
which creaks, groans and often breaks down 
in bringing a border ruffian to justice ? — Pio- 
neer, Yuma, Col. 



FROM AUGUST 8 TO SEPTEMBER 8 



Home News 

Aug. 8. — Indictments charging the Standard 
Oil Company with receiving rebates in 
the form of non-payment of storage 
charges to certain railroad companies 
are returned by the Federal grand jury 
at Chicago. 

Senator Cullum, of Illinois, announces 
that he is for Speaker Cannon for Presi- 
dent in 1908. 

Justice Giegerich, in the Supreme Court 
of New York, decides that the Mutual 
Life Insurance Company's corrected 
list of policyholders must be filed at 
Albany within ten days, and further 
corrected lists from time to time until 
the ballots have been sent out. He 
denies the International Policyholders' 
Committee's demand that the company 
be compelled to permit the committee 
to have access to the company's ad- 
dress stencils, and to send out its 
circulars on the company's stencils. 

The Grand Jury in New York City 
begins an investigation of the methods 
of the Ice Trust. 

The Equitable Life Assurance Society 
decides to continue doing business in 
France. 
Aug. 9. — For the first time since 1893 the 
United States enters the market for 
silver bullion. Secretary Shaw de- 
cides to purchase 100,000 ounces per 
week until the demand for dimes, quar- 
ters and halves is supplied. 

San Francisco policyholders attach the 

firoperty of the Transatlantic Fire 
nsurance Company, of Hamburg, Ger- 
many, in New York City, as the Trans- 
atlantic refuses to pay any fire losses 
at San Francisco, claiming the destruc- 
tion by fire an act of Providence. 
The President approves the recommen- 
dation of Acting Secretary Murray 
that the McCulloch be sent back at 
once to the Pribvloff Islands to co- 
operate with the Perry in the patrol of 
the seal fishing waters. 
Ex-Senator James K. Jones, of Arkansas, 
representing the Standard Oil Company 
in a legal capacity, appeals to President 
Roosevelt in behalf of the Standard in 
629 



regard to its controversy with the De- 
partment of the Interior over oil line 
leases in the Indian Territory. 
Aug. 10. — The Panama Canal Commission 
decides to employ 2,500 Chinese labor- 
ers for digging the canal. 

The Federal Grand Jury for the Western 
District of New York returns indict- 
ments against the Standard Oil Com- 
pany of New York, the Pennsylvania 
Railroad and the Vacuum Oil Com- 
pany for rebating. 

Horace Tucker, chairman of the Chicago 
and St. Louis Traffic Association, testi- 
fies before the Federal Grand Jury at 
Chicago that direct rebate arrange- 
ments exist between the Standard Oil 
Company and certain railroads. 
Aug. 11. — Chairman Shonts, of the Panama 
Canal Commission, arrives in New York 
City from Colon, and reports general 
conditions in the Canal Zone good. He 
states that the labor problem has been 
solved by employing Spanish and 
Chinese laborers. 

Samuel Gompers, President of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, protests 
against the proposed employing of 
Chinese labor in the construction of the 
Panama Canal. He accuses Chairman 
Shonts of bad faith, claiming that 
Shonts promised that coolies should 
never be brought into the Canal Zone. 

Chairman Shonts replies to Mr. Gompers, 
stating that the Chinese Exclusion act 
and the eight-hour law do not apply 
to the Canal Zone . 

The Grand Jury at Boston indicts eight 
corporations and twenty-two persons 
connected with the corporations for 
conspiracy in restraint of trade. Seven 
of the corporations are ice companies. 
Aug. 12. — Friends of District Attorney 
Jerome state that he will be a candi- 
date for the Democratic nomination 
for Governor of New York. 

Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte delivers 
an address on "Anarchism and its 
Remedy" before the Alleghany Chau- 
tauqua near Cumberland, Md. The 
Secretary denounces the "Reds" 
"as product of superficial education 
and decay of religion," and recommends 



630 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



the lash and death as a punishment 
for their crimes. 

A despatch from Chicago states that 
W. J. Bryan refuses to take part in the 
Illinois campaign unless Roger Sullivan, 
present head of the Democratic machine 
in that state, is put out of power and 
forced to resign from the Democratic 
National Committee . " It is immaterial 
to me whether Illinois indorses me or 
not," Mr. Bryan is quoted as saying. 
"But it is very important that the 
Democracy of that state repudiate 
Sullivan and his methods. The party 
must, first of all, purge itself of such 
leadership before it can enter courage- 
ously upon a campaign." 
August 13. — President Roosevelt holds con- 
ferences with Chairman Shonts, of the 
Isthmian Canal Commission, and Chair- 
man Sherman, of the Congressional 
Campaign Committee. 

The annual encampment of the Grand 
Army of the Republic opens at Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 
August 14. — Twenty miles of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad's track is washed out 
by a flood near Langtry, Tex., and the 
damage is estimated at $2,000,000. 

Since the announcement that the United 
States Government was in the market 
for silver bullion the price has risen so 
rapidly that Secretary Shaw decides 
to buy only enough to meet urgent 
demands. 

The Interstate Commerce Commission 
begins an investigation of the relations 
of railroads entering Toledo, Ohio, with 
ice companies shipping over them. 

At the suggestion of Governor Frantz, of 
Oklahoma, Attorney- General Cromwell 
begins an investigation to ascertain 
whether or not any railroad has violated 
its charter by discriminating in freight 
rates. 

More than 100 men connected with 
Southern railroads meet at Atlantic 
City, N. J., to discuss the Railroad 
Rate law. The attorneys for the dif- 
ferent roads are also present and are 
going over the new law section by sec- 
tion, endeavoring to find flaws on which 
they can destroy the effectiveness of it. 
August 15. — Ex-Governor Odell secures con- 
trol of the New York State Republican 
Committee, giving him control of the 
organization over Governor Higgins. 

Roger Sullivan, of Illinois, refuses the 
request of Mr. Bryan to resign from 
the National Committee and accuses 
Mr. Bryan of attempting to resurrect 
strife. 

The Interstate Commerce Commission 
takes final steps looking to the enforce- 
ment of the Safety Appliance law, which 
requires that ultimately all freight 
cars in this country must be equipped 
with air brakes. 



August 16. — President Roosevelt told 
Speaker Cannon a few days ago, so an 
ear-witness relates, that he (Cannon) 
would be the next President of the 
United States. The Republican con- 
vention of the Eighteenth Illinois 
Congressional District renominates 
Speaker Cannon and indorses him for 
the Presidency in 1908. 

Bob Davis, a negro, is lynched in the 
presence of Governor Heywood at 
Greenwood, S. C, after the Governor 
had made a plea to the mob to let the 
law take its course. Davis had murder- 
ously attacked a white lady and 
assaulted a negro girl. 

Gen. Robert B. Brown, of Zanesville, 
Ohio, is elected commander-in-chief of 
the Grand Army of the Republic. 

The Odell Republicans notify the friends 
of President Roosevelt that they are 
willing to join with them in the interest 
of party harmony and nominate Charles 
E. Hughes for Governor of New York. 

The Democratic and Populist state con- 
ventions of Nebraska agree upon a fusion 
state ticket. 
August 17. — Cale and Waskey, the candi- 
dates of the miners of Alaska, are 
elected delegates to Congress by large 
majorities. 

The Grand Army of the Republic com- 
pletes its fortieth encampment and ad- 
journs to meet in Saratoga, N.Y., in 1907. 

The President appoints J. S. Harlan, of 
Chicago, a member of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission. 

The Democrats of Massachusetts indorse 
William J. Bryan for President in 1908. 
August 19. — William Travers Jerome an- 
nounces his willingness to run against 
William R. Hearst as the "conserva- 
tive" Democratic candidate for Gover- 
nor of New York. Up to the present 
time everything indicates that Hearst 
will have the regular Democratic nomi- 
nation, also that of the Independence 
(Municipal Ownership) League. 

Seven persons are killed and ten injured in 
a railroad wreck at Johnstown, Pa. 

Carrie Nation is jailed in Denver, Col., on a 
charge of disturbance and inciting a riot. 
August 20. — The Republican Campaign Com- 
mittee makes public a letter from the 
President to Congressman James E. 
Watson, of Rushville, Ind., in which he 
opposes any change of leadership and 
organization in the House, upholds the 
Panama Canal, declares heartily for 
trades unions, but against their abuse, 
stands unequivocally for a protective 
tariff and has the following to say about 
the trusts: "The question of revising 
the tariff stands wholly apart from the 
question of dealing with the so-called 
'trusts.' . . . The only way in 
which it is possible to deal with those 
trusts and monopolies and this great 



NEWS RECORD 



631 



corporate wealth is by action along the 
line of the laws enacted by the 
present Congress and its immediate 
predecessors." 
The Isthmian Canal Commission issues 
specifications for bids to furnish 2,500 
Chinese coolies to the Canal Commission 
by January 7, 1907. 
The corrected amounts carried by each of 
the annual appropriation bills passed by 
Congress at the last session are as 
follows : Agricultural, $0,930,440 ; army, 
$71,817,165.08; diplomatic and con- 
sular, $3,091,094.17 ; District of Colum- 
bia, $10,138,672.16; fortification, $5,- 
053,993; Indian, $9,260,599.98; legisla- 
tive, executive and judicial, $29,681,- 
919.30; Military Academy, $1,664,- 
707; naval, $102,091,670.27; pension, 
$140,245,500; post-office, $191,695,- 
998.75 ; sundry civil, $98,538,770.32 ; de- 
ficiency appropriations, $39,129,035- 
45; miscellanous appropriations, $27,- 
173,299.01; permanent appropriations, 
$140,076,320. Grand total, $879,589,- 
185.16. In addition to the foregoing 
specific appropriations made, contracts 
are authorized to be entered into for cer- 
tain public works requiring future ap- 
propriations by Congress in the aggre- 
gate sum of $20,587,200. A compari- 
son of these contract liabilities with 
those of the last session of the last Con- 
gress, amounting to $26,770,057, shows 
a reduction of $6,182,857. 
August 21. — Roger Sullivan wins over Mr. 
Bryan's friends by a vote of 1,038 to 
570 in the Illinois Democratic State 
Convention. The Sullivan followers 
then indorse Mr. Bryan for President, 
notwithstanding Mr. Bryan's declara- 
tion that he did not wish the indorse- 
ment unless Sullivan was repudiated. 
Charles F. Murphy, Tammany boss, de- 
clares himself in favor of William R. 
Hearst for the regular Democratic nomi- 
nation for Governor of New York. 
Following Murphy's declaration Mr. 
Hearst makes a statement in which he 
denounces Murphy, McCarren, Belmont, 
Ryan and politicians of their type and 
warns them against supporting him. 
The Illinois State Republican Convention 
indorses Speaker Cannon for the Presi- 
dency in 1908. 
August 22. — Hon. Hoke Smith is nominated 
Governor of Georgia by an overwhelm- 
ing majority over the other four candi- 
dates. Out of a possible vote of 360, he 
secures 306. The nomination is equiva- 
lent to election and brings to a close one 
of the hardest fought campaigns in the 
history of the South. 
Officials of the Southeastern Railroad lines 
meet in New York City and discuss the 
interpretation of the Railroad Rate 
bill, which takes effect August 29. 
Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth receives 



an invitation to unveil the memorial 
statue to the late President McKinley, 
at Canton, which will be presented to 
the State of Ohio on September 14. 
Heat kills 10 and prostrates 29 persons in 

Chicago. 
Senator Beveridge opens the congressional 
campaign in Maine, and declares the 
issue in the coming congressional elec- 
tion is Theodore Roosevelt. 
August 24. — President Roosevelt indorses 
the spelling reform movement, started 
by Professor Brander Matthews, of 
Columbia University, and Andrew Car- 
negie. An order is issued to the public 
printer that all documents emanating 
from the White House and all messages 
from the President shall be printed 
in accordance with the recommendation 
of the Spelling Reform Committee. 
The Federal Grand Jury at Jamestown, 
N. Y., again indicts the Standard 
Oil Company and the New York Cen- 
tral Railroad for rebating. 
August 25. — The President issues an appeal 
for aid for the sufferers of the recent 
earthquake in Chile. 
Six persons die from heat in Louisville, 

Ky., and three in Chicago. 
Two thousand rifles, eight rapid-fire guns 
and two million rounds of cartridges are 
shipped to the Cuban Government from 
New York City. 
August 26. — The announcement is made at 
Peoria, 111., that the Standard Oil 
Company has taken steps toward ac- 
quiring ownership of all the principal 
distilling plants in the United States. 
This will give the Standard control of 
the output of denatured alcohol. 
Andrew Carnegie declares that other re- 
forms in the English language will 
follow President Roosevelt's indorse- 
ment of the reform style spelling. 
Street railway traffic is suspended in 
San Francisco as the result of a strike 
for higher wages by conductors and 
motormen. 

August 27. — The Federal Grand Jury at 
Chicago returns ten indictments, con- 
taining 6,420 counts, against the 
Standard Oil Company, all in connection 
with the granting of rebates. 

The United States receives notice that 
Dalny, now called Tarien, will be 
opened as a free port on September 1. 

Delegations from Lincoln and Omaha, 
Neb., reach New York City, where 
they expect to welcome Mr. Bryan on 
August 30. 

The Union Pacific and several other rail- 
roads advertise for bids for refrigerator 
cars. It is supposed that this will be a 
big advantage to fruit growers, as 
it will do away with the private car 
monopoly. 

A band of Cuban rebels are routed by 
Government troops near Cienfuegos 



632 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



and the rebels lose seventeen men. 
President Palma offers amnesty to all 
rebels who will lay down their arms 
and return to their homes within thirty 
days. 
August 28. — Despatches from Columbia, 
S. C, state that the Local Option ticket 
carries the state, and that Senator Till- 
man and the dispensary are defeated 
on the whisky question. 
The Real Estate Trust Company, of Phila- 
delphia, Pa., fails for $7,000,000. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission re- 
fuses to make rulings and interpreta- 
tions in advance as requested by some 
railroads. 
Thousands of Democrats from different 
sections of the country reach New York 
City to meet Mr. Bryan. 
August 29. — Hon. W. J. Bryan, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Bryan and Miss 
Bryan, arrives off Sandy Hook, New 
York, from Europe, and is met by a 
large delegation of Democrats. Mr. 
Bryan goes to the home of Lewis Nixon 
on Staten Island instead of to New York 
City. 
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson returns to 
Washington from a trip to the West and 
Northwest, where he inspected many 
packing-houses. The secretary re- 
ports the conditions greatly improved. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission 
refuses to give the express companies 
the delay asked for in the enforcement 
of the new rate law. The law goes into 
effect today. 
August 30. — The public reception tendered 
Hon. W. J. Bryan at Madison 
Square Garden, New York City, is 
attended by ten thousand cheering ad- 
mirers of Mr. Bryan. He favors 
referring all international disputes to 
The Hague Tribunal and opposes the 
use of our navy as a means to collect 
debts, stands for the independence of 
the Philippines, for popular election of 
senators, for an income tax, for arbitra- 
tion in labor disputes, parties not being 
bound to accept the decisions, against 
government by injunction, for an eight- 
hour day, for President Roosevelt's 
recommended legislation against cam- 
paign contributions, for the complete 
overthrow of the monopoly principle in 
industry, for a tariff for revenue only, 
for Government ownership of all trunk 
railroads and state ownership of all 
others and against Socialism. 
Secretary Wilson notifies the packers that 
labels on packages of meat products 
must be so explicit that there will be 
no deception of the public hereafter, if 
the packers want their goods accepted for 
interstate shipment. 
The absence of John Sharp Williams from 
the Bryan reception arouses much com- 
ment in Washington. 



August 31. — Honorable W. J. Bryan ad- 
dresses his followers in six New England 
states, at New Haven, Conn. Mr. 
Brvan repeats his declarations in re- 
gard to public ownership of railroads, 
and a New England Bryan League is 
formed. 
Despatches from Washington state that 
prominent Democrats, among them 
Senator Bailey, of Texas, Governor Folk, 
of Missouri, and Congressman Living- 
ston, of Georgia, attack Mr. Bryan's 
Government ownership plans and pre- 
dict that it will defeat his nomination 
in 1908. 
Six Japanese are convicted of poaching at 
Valdez, Alaska. The six belong to the 
same party of which five were killed. 
Former Judge Alton B. Parker, of New 
York, is elected president of the Ameri- 
can Bar Association. 
The United States Army transport Sheri- 
dan goes aground on Barber's Point, 
Oahu Island, one of the Hawaiian group, 
and it is feared the vessel will be a total 
loss. 
September 1. — A report from May King, 
Kentucky, states that twelve miners are 
entombed in the mines at that place 
and it is believed the men are dead. 
Honorable W.J. Bryan speaks at Newark, 
and Jersey City, N. J. At Newark he 
declares Mr. Roosevelt's popularity arose 
chiefly through his advocacy of Demo- 
cratic principles. 
At the National Democratic Club, in New 
York City, Mr. Bryan declares he values 
the approval of his conscience more than 
that of the whole country. 
J. Edward (Gas) Addicks is badly de- 
feated in the Republican primaries 
throughout Delaware. 
Many charges of discrimination and 
unjust rates are filed by shippers with 
the Interstate Commerce Commission 
against many of the important railroads 
of the country. 
Charles A. Walsh, the Iowa member of the 
Democratic National Committee , tenders 
his resignation. 

September 2. — In a battle between Italians 
and the Pennsylvania State Constabu- 
lary, at Punxsutawney, Pa., two of the 
constabulary are killed and one seri- 
ously wounded, while three other per- 
sons are hit by bullets. 

Hon. W. J. Bryan leaves New York City 
for his home in Lincoln, Neb. Mr. 
Bryan will shortly begin to make 
speeches in the congressional campaign. 

President Roosevelt writes the public 
printer that if the changes in spelling 
he has approved do not meet with 
popular approval they may be dropped. 

Washington despatches state that all ton- 
nage and navigation dues in the Philip- 
pine Islands have been abolished by 



NEWS RECORD 



633 



an act of the Philippine Commission, 
passed August 31. 
September 3. — The United States Army 
transport Sheridan is said to be a total 
wreck. 
The President reviews the naval parade 
at Oyster Bay. The squadron consists 
of twelve battleships, twelve cruisers, 
thirteen torpedo boats and two sub- 
marines, the most powerful fleet of 
American battleships ever assembled. 
The United States cruiser Boston runs on 
a rock near Anacortes, Wash., and 
is reported to be sinking. The Bos- 
ton was one of Dewey's ships in the 
battle of Manila. 
Speaker Cannon opens his campaign tour 
at Augusta, Me., in a speech in favor 
of Representative Littlefield. Mr. 
Littlefield is one of the congressmen 
marked for defeat by Samuel Gompers, 
the labor leader. 
Hon. W. R. Hearst fires the first gun in 
his gubernatorial campaign at Syra- 
cuse, N. Y. 
September 4. — Fletcher D. Proctor (Repub- 
lican), son of Senator Proctor, is elected 
Governor of Vermont by a large 
majority. 
Hon. William J. Bryan repudiates the 
recent indorsement of him by the 
Democrats of Illinois as the next nomi- 
nee for President. He also bitterly 
denounces the political methods of 
National Committeeman Roger C. Sulli- 
van. 
The United States cruiser Boston is not so 
seriously damaged as was first re- 
ported. 
Despatches from Washington state that 
Senator Bailey, of Texas, admits that 
he purposes giving out a statement 
replying to Mr. Bryan's declaration in 
favor of Federal ownership of railroads. 
It is the opinion in Washington that Mr. 
Bailey now hopes for the Democratic 
nomination in 1908. 
September 5.— The leak in the United States 
cruiser Boston is stopped and the vessel 
will be saved. 
In a speech at Lewistown, Me., Speaker 
Cannon criticizes the methods of Samuel 
Gompers, president of the American 
Federation of Labor, in dictating how 
the workingmen shall vote in the com- 
ing congressional election. 
The Bryan men in New York plan to de- 
feat Hearst for the gubernatorial nomi- 
nation by starting a boom for Congress- 
man William Sulzer. A conference of 
conservative anti-Hearst Democrats at 
Albany practically nominates District 
Attorney Jerome. 
Senator Daniel, of Virginia, announces 
that he is opposed to Mr. Bryan's plan 
of Government ownership of railroads. 
Mr. Bryan is welcomed home by the citi- 
zens of Lincoln, Neb. 
Secretary of War Taft speaks at Bath, 



Me. The secretary defends Congress- 
man Littlefield and criticizes Sam- 
uel Gompers. He also favors tariff 
revision and expects agreement in the 
future . 
September 6. — After being notified that the 
district attorney was preparing indict- 
ments for all of them, the directors of 
the Real Estate Trust Company of 
Philadelphia pledged S3, 000, 000 to pay 
all creditors of the institution in full. 
A petition is filed with the Interstate 
Commerce Commission by J. E. Walker, 
of Media, Pa., charging the Balti- 
more & Ohio Railroad and the 
United States Express Company with 
punishing people who patronize a trolley 
line in competition with the railroad by 
a system of blacklisting. The com- 
plainant maintains that package ex- 
press rates for sending goods out of 
Philadelphia to suburban towns are 
denied those who ride on the trolley 
line in preference to the railroad. 
The Legislature of Porto Rico authorizes 
a loan of $1,000,000 for the purpose of 
building good roads. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission 
makes public an order calling upon the 
railroads of the country for information 
in regard to block signaling practice 
and electrical signaling appliances. 
The Commission considers this an im- 
portant matter, as it has to do directly 
with the safety of life and property in 
railroad travel. 
The packers agree to have the labels for 
canned meats ready by October 1, 
when the new law goes into effect. 
The labels must state exactly what is 
contained in each package. 
September 7. — It is announced that William 
J. Bryan will take no part in the fac- 
tional fight of the Democrats of Ne- 
braska. Mr. Bryan tours North Caro- 
lina the middle of this month, but may 
give up the trips to Panama and Austra- 
lia. In October he will probably make 
a tour of all the congressional districts 
of Illinois. Roger Sullivan, national 
Democratic committeeman from Illinois, 
challenges Bryan to prove his charges 
against him and makes countercharges. 
September 8. — Dan Patch breaks the world's 
pacing record by going a mile at St. 
Paul in 1.55. 
Judge Banker, of Findlay, Ohio, overrules 
pleas of abatement and motions to 
quash the information filed against 
John D. Rockefeller and the Standard 
Oil Company. 

Foreign News 

August 8. — Edwin W. Sims, solicitor for the 
Department of Commerce and Labor, 
who is in Alaska to enforce the new law 
prohibiting all persons not citizens of 
the United States from fishing in Alaskan 



634 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



waters, reports the killing of five Japa- 
nese fishermen and the capture of twelve 
Japanese prisoners on Atta Island, one 
of the Aleutian group. 

Cape Town, South Africa, is placed under 
control of the naval and military volun- 
teers to prevent a recurrence of recent 
riots. It is suggested to the English 
Government that a party of American 
negro preachers, who are advocating 
the "Africa for the Africans" idea, be 
deported from South Africa. 

The Russian Cabinet begins a campaign 
preparatory to the election of a more 
tractable Parliament in December. It is 
also decided to appropriate $27,000,000 
for famine relief. Reports from Odessa 
state that the revolutionists decide to 
call a general strike in September. 
August 9. — Many arrests are made in St. 
Petersburg, Russia, and it is stated that 
most of the labor leaders are now in 
custody. 

Negotiations are opened between the 
Octobrists and Constitutional Demo- 
crats for the uniting of the two parties 
in the coming campaign, and confer- 
ences are in progress at Moscow. 

The report of the pecuniary committee of 
the International American Conference, 
now in session at Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 
recommends the extension and with- 
drawal of all modifications for five years 
of the "Treaty of Arbitration for Pecu- 
niary Claims" agreed upon at the Mexi- 
can conference between the different 
republics. 
August 10. — The Shah of Persia issues a de- 
cree granting a national assembly and 
constitution. 

Secretary Root and party reach Monte- 
video, Uruguay. 

Services are held on board the United 
States battleship Ohio at Yokohama, 
Japan, over the body of Rear-Admiral 
Train. 

Members of the moderate parties in Russia 
start movements to bring about a con- 
stitutional form of government by 
peaceful means. 

Three officers and two privates of the 8th 
U. S. Infantry are killed by Pulajanes in 
Leyte, Philippine Islands. 

The Spanish Ministry determines to make 
the Church subservient to the State. 
At the first sitting of Parliament it is 
announced that the Government will 
introduce a bill making religious orders 
amenable to the law controlling indus- 
trial corporations. 
August 11. — Despatches from Panama state 
that the police capture seventeen 
Colombian generals, former revolu- 
tionists, on the charge of conspiracy 
against high national authorities. 

While reviewing maneuvres and putting 
troops through blank-firing practice, 
Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia is fired 



on with ball-cartridges by the troops, 
but escapes injury. 

Secretary Root receives many attentions 
at Montevideo, and makes an address in 
which he praises the Monroe Doctrine 
and expresses the kind feelings of the 
United States toward South American 
republics. 

A despatch from Constantinople states 
that the Sultan of Turkey is seriously ill 
and may have to undergo an operation. 

High Russian officials express the opinion 
that the Government has the situation 
in hand and that all danger of a success- 
ful revolutionary movement is past. 

Terror reigns at Warsaw and Lodz and the 
authorities seem powerless. Many as- 
sassinations occur in different parts of 
the empire. 
August 12. — Grand Duke Nicholas declines 
to accept the post of commander-in- 
chief of all the troops of Russia, where 
martial law exists, and advocates the 
appointment of General Linevitch. 
Seven mutineers are condemned to 
death by court-martial at Sveaborg. 
Strict martial law is declared at Kieff . 

Turkish officials deny the serious illness of 
the Sultan. 

Despatches from Tokio state that the 
Japanese Government is not likely to 
consider the killing of Japanese poachers 
seriously. 

A despatch to London from Aden reports 
that the Mad Mullah has raided the 
Somaliland border, killing 1,000 of the 
Rarebaron tribe, and capturing 10,000 
camels. 

Abyssinian despatches say that King 
Menelek has signed the Franco- Italian- 
British convention relative to railways 
to be constructed there, and that the 
convention will be communicated to the 
parliaments of the interested states as 
soon as they meet. The main features of 
the treaty referred to above are a guar- 
antee of the integrity of the Abyssinian 
Empire, the open door and commercial 
equality for all countries, and the con- 
tinuation by the French of the con- 
struction of the railway connecting 
Addis Abacca, the capital of Abyssinia, 
with the coast, Great Britain and Italy 
naming representatives on the railway 
directorate. 
August 13. — Secretary Root sails from 
Montevideo for Buenos Ayres, Argen- 
tine Republic. 

Mrs. Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (John 
Oliver Hobbes), novelist and dramatist, 
dies in London, aged thirty-nine. 

The Pan-American Congress, in session at 
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, adopts the natur- 
alization treaty report, also twelve of the 
thirteen articles concerning the reorgan- 
ization of the Bureau of American 
Republics. 

The St. Petersburg police seize a large 



NEWS RECORD 



635 



quantity of bombs and shells. Agrar- 
ian disorders are increasing in the hill 
regions of the Crimea. 

The Shah of Persia's rescript to the Grand 
Vizier orders the formation of a national 
consultative assembly, composed of rep- 
resentatives of all classes, from the 
princes downward. 
August 14. — The Mad Mullah attacks the 
Sultan of Mijerain's territory and is 
repulsed. The losses are said to exceed 
1,000. 

Secretary Root reaches Buenos Ayres, 
Argentine Republic, and is given a great 
ovation. 

The Pope's encyclical to the archbishops 
and bishops of -France advising against 
the acceptance of provisions of the 
Church and State separation law is 
generally approved by the French 
Catholic clergy. 

The Philippine . authorities plan a cam- 
paign to exterminate the outlaw bands 
of Pulajanes. 

The Czar of Russia, accompanied by his 
family, visits the Guards' camp at 
Krasnoye-Selo to witness the ma- 
neuvres. 

A special governor is appointed for the 
coal and iron region of Southern 
Russia to suppress the disorders. 

King Edward of England leaves London 
for a trip to the continent, where he will 
meet the Emperor of Germany. 
August 15. — King Edward of England and 
Emperor William of Germany meet at 
Cronberg, Hesse-Nassau, Prussia. It 
is expected that improved political rela- 
tions between the two countries will 
follow the conference of the two rulers. 

The revolutionists and terrorists make 
murderous attacks with bombs and 
revolvers on the police and troops in 
several cities in Poland. Many soldiers 
and police are killed in Warsaw. 

The Russian Government, it is stated in 
St. Petersburg, now fears to call out the 
recruits in the autumn, as a large per- 
centage would prove unreliable against 
the people. 

Secretary Root is banqueted at Buenos 
Ayres, and urges close friendship be- 
tween the United States and Argentine 
Republic. 

August 16. — The conference between King 
Edward and Emperor William ends, 
and King Edward leaves Cronberg. 

Despatches from Tokio, Japan, state that 
the killing and capture of a number of 
Japanese seal poachers by Americans 
in the Aleutian Islands will be amicably 
settled without the slightest complica- 
tions. 

The Sultan of Turkey orders the release of 
all prisoners in the empire who have 
completed two-thirds of their sentences, 
as a mark of gratification for the re- 
covery of his health. 



Russian terrorists continue to murder and 
pillage. At Plotsk, a town about forty 
miles from Warsaw, every policeman 
on the street is killed or wounded. 
Two hundred and fifty Jews are re- 
ported killed and wounded at Warsaw. 
Reports from all over the empire show 
the police to be helpless in coping with 
the revolutionists. 
August 17. — Private telegrams reach Lon- 
don stating that Valparaiso, Chile, is 
wrecked by an earthquake. The re- 
ports indicate that the earthquake was 
more severe than the recent San Fran- 
cisco disaster. 

The revolutionary movement is spreading 
in Russia. Numbers of encounters be- 
tween the troops and the people occur 
though out the empire. 

Cuban soldiers on duty at the palace in 
Havana mutiny because of harsh treat- 
ment and poor rations. The Cuban 
Government grants the demands of the 
soldiers and order is restored. 
August 18. — Five thousand persons are re- 
ported killed by the earthquake in 
Chile. Valparaiso is said to be in ruins 
and the property loss is estimated at 
$200,000,000. The following message 
is received via Galveston, Tex. : Val- 
paraiso has been wrecked by earth- 
quake and fire, and the few buildings 
that escaped serious damage from the 
quakes have either burned or are in im- 
mediate danger of being burned. The 
people are panic-stricken, and all at- 
tempts at organization have proven 
futile . Martial law has been proclaimed 
and an effort is being made to calm the 
people, but with little hope, as the earth- 
quakes still continue up to this afternoon, 
five shocks being felt today, although 
not so frequent or violent, but enough 
to keep the people in a state of terror. 
The Mexican cable was in operation all 
day to Valparaiso, but to interior points 
all overland wires are down, and it will 
be several days before they are restored. 
The entire business portion of Valparai- 
so has been destroyed. The authorities 
will not permit any lights in the build- 
ings, and at dark the cable office was 
closed for the night. The dead and 
injured are estimated at from 1 ,000 to 
5,000. However, owing to the lack of a 
systematic report, all figures are specu- 
lation. The shocks have continued 
since Thursday night, and five slight 
shocks were felt today. The operators 
of the cable company have deserted 
their posts, with one exception. The 
shipping in the harbor escaped damage, 
and every vessel is a haven for refugees. 
All buildings have been deserted. Prac- 
tically nothing has been done in the way 
of clearing wrecks or searching for dead 
bodies, and laborers refuse to enter the 
ruins because of the continued shocks. 



636 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



Soldiers will force the rescue work to- 
morrow. 

The rumors of uprisings in Cuba are partly 
confirmed. A detachment of Rural 
Guards encounters a small band near 
Rio Hondo, province of Pinar del Rio. 

At a banquet in his honor at Buenos Ayres 
Secretary Root advocates arbitration, 
mediation and all other elements that 
make for peace. The secretary declares 
that the United States has never em- 
ployed her army or navy for the col- 
lection of debts contracted by govern- 
ments or private individuals, and never 
will do so. 

Despatches from Warsaw, Russia, state 
that the hospitals are filled with wounded 
persons and many are forced to lie 
on the floors. Street traffic is practical- 
ly suspended on account of the inse- 
curity of life. The priests of the 
Orthodox Church are said to be sup- 
porting the Government. 

The Sultan of Turkey is said to be suffer- 
ing from B right's disease. 

Despatches from London state that King 
Edward and Emperor William of 
Germany are now thoroughly recon- 
ciled. 

Another revolution is reported from San 
Domingo. 
August 19. — Despatches estimate the dead in 
the Chilean earthquake at 2,000 and 
property losses at $250,000,000. One 
hundred thousand people are said to 
be homeless, and conditions are worse 
than those experienced by San Fran-, 
cisco. 

Six Cubans, leaders of the Liberal Party, 
are arrested in Havana on a charge of 
conspiring against the Government and 
plotting to assassinate President Palma. 

The Czar of Russia sounds a call of un- 
compromising war with terrorists and 
revolutionists. Riots and the throwing 
of bombs continue throughout the 
empire. 
August 20. — Despatches from Santiago de 
Chile state that refugees from Valparaiso 
declare that 1,000 corpses have 
already been buried. Twenty-five pil- 
lagers have been shot and the stricken 
district is now under martial law. 
Details of the damage done in the 
smaller towns is still lacking, but the 
property losses are estimated at from 
$200,000,000 to $300,000,000. 

President Palma of Cuba issues a decree 
appointing Gen. Rafael Montalvo, sec- 
retary of public works, to be in direct 
charge of all military operations against 
the insurgents, and increases the num- 
ber of Rural Guards to 4,000. One 
hundred Rural Guards and 50 artillery- 
men leave Havana for Pinar del Rio, 
the scene of the revolutionary move- 
ments. 
September 2. — Reports from Russia state 



that $7,5000,000 will be needed to 
combat the famine, which is most 
severe in the provinces of Samara, 
Saratoff, Simbirsk, Penza, Kazan, Tam- 
boff and Ufa. More murders occur at 
Warsaw, and the city has been deserted 
by the better classes. 

President Palma announces that the 
Cuban Government has no concessions 
to offer or accept, and no intention 
other than fighting the matter through 
and suppressing the insurrection. 

The Emperor of China issues an edict 
promising a constitutional government 
when the people are fitted for it. 
September 3. — In a speech at Santiago, 
Chile, Secretary Root declares that the 
twentieth century will be the century 
for South America; that the opening 
of the Panama Canal will revolutionize 
the world's commerce, and that the 
west coast of South America will be 
benefited most. 

In a fight between troops and striking 
coal miners at Petroseney, Hungary, 
175 miners were injured. 

The pretender to the Moroccan throne is 
defeated near Muluyu, losing his two 
principal chiefs. 

The Polish school children in the province 
of Posen strike against being com- 
pelled to say prayers in German, and to 
answer in German in the course of 
religious instruction. 

Cossacks kill 6 and wound 22 persons at 
Warsaw. 

Fourteen officers and 1 surgeon are 
arrested at Odessa on a charge of 
having conducted secret meetings of 
soldiers, and plotting to kill all the 
authorities. 

Despatches from Cuba state that the Gov- 
ernment is now willing to negotiate 
for peace with the insurgents and an- 
other meeting of the veterans will be 
held to devise a plan of settlement. 
September 4. — French bishops and arch- 
bishops meet in Paris to determine the 
attitude of the Church toward the law 
separating Church and State. 

Hundreds of persons are arrested in 
Warsaw. It is believed that a large 
number of revolutionists have left 
Warsaw for the purpose of terrorizing 
the country districts. 

Tatar-Armenian hostilities are in full 
swing in several districts of Southeast- 
ern Caucasus. 

Floods destroy a large section of the 
Behar District, India, and a famine 
is feared. The inhabitants of the 
lowlands have been forced to seek 
refuge in the hills and live on half-ripe 
wheat. 

The situation in Cuba seems to grow 
worse. It is reported that two-thirds 
of the people in the country and small 
towns of the provinces of Pinar del Rio, 



NEWS RECORD 



637 



Havana and Santa Clara are either 
insurgents in fact or in sentiment. 
September 5. — Party leaders meet in Cuba, 
and hopes of an agreement are strong. 
Fighting ceases for the present. 

An official communication embodying 
the Russian Government's program 
is published at St. Petersburg. It 
grants reforms and increases penalties. 
It embraces court-martial for political 
crimes and an increase of penalties 
for revolutionary propaganda, and 
expresses a firm determination to 
preserve order. Among the reforms 
granted are the immediate abolition 
of useless restrictions on Jews, measures 
in the direction of greater provincial 
autonomy, an income tax, reforms in 
the police and other public services 
and the introduction of zemstvos in 
Poland and the Baltic Provinces. 
September 6. — Premier Stolypin's announce- 
ment of the Russian Government's 
plans for reforms has a quieting effect 
on the people. Terrorists burn a small 
village near Powsin, Russian Poland. 

A despatch from Cienfuegos, Cuba, states 
that the rebels rout a detachment of 
Government troops near Camerones. 

No appreciable progress toward anything 
like a satisfactory understanding is 
made by the peace conferences. 



September 7. — Russian reactionists oppose 
Premier Stolypin because of his refusal 
to abandon proposed reforms, while 
the reform elements threaten that un- 
less the distribution of lands to peasants 
and the removal of restrictive laws 
have a more sweepingeffect than antici- 
pated the coming Parliament is likely 
to be even more radical than the first 
one. The Social Revolutionists resolve 
to continue terrorism and to aim at the 
lives of the highest officials. A few 
days ago an attempt was made on the 
life of M. Kryshanovsky, vice-minister 
of the interior. 

The Trades Union Congress of Great 
Britain unanimously instructs the Labor 
members of Parliament to introduce a 
bill for the national ownership of all 
railways, canals and mines in the 
United Kingdom. 

Pino Guerra, the Cuban revolutionist 
leader, refuses all overtures from the 
Government for peace. The rebellion 
is spreading, and it is believed that 
San Juan y Martinez has been recap- 
tured by the rebels. 

September 8. — The Harvard eight -oared 
crew is defeated by the crew of Cam- 
bridge University, England, on the 
Thames after a game struggle. 



An Autumn Leaf 

BY CHARLES HANSON TOWNE 

UPON my parchment, sadly old, 
The record lives of summer's gold; 
And in my veins there lingers now 
The joy of spring's awakening bough. 

So I, like many a human heart 
Wherefrom Life's shining days depart, 
Keep valiantly some remnant yet 
Of dreams we never quite forget. 



i i T_T OW does one get rich in politics ?" 

*-*■ " Oh, you simply go to the Senate, andthen it's the first turn to the left." 



T 



Big Profit 

ED — That assemblyman seems to be making money. 

Ned — No wonder. He buys votes for $2 each and sells his own for $5,000. 



uje Firincr Liine 

o ~ 




k^ The Circulation Manacrer . 




T 



Secretary People's Party National Com- 
mittee 

AFTER beating the everlasting 
stuffing out of an opponent, I 
never feel like crowing over- 
much. Somehow I can't help feeling a 
little sad for the poor devil who went 
down to defeat. No; it isn't exactly 
altruism; I think it's a sort of reflex 
determinism, to coin a phrase. I was 
born in Western Pennsylvania, where, 
by the time I was "knee high to a 
grasshopper," to be a Democrat it 
took: — 

A gentleman's manners, 
'Neath a rhinoceros hide, 

(with apologies to W. J. Ghent; I'm 
quoting from memory. Maybe Carle- 
ton, in "Making an Editor Outen o' 
Him, " didn't say it exactly so). 

And, so, I know from sad experience 
just how it feels to get "licked" — and 
how it feels to have the other fellow 
"rub it in." 

Naturally, readers of Watson's will 
understand that I am hinting about 
Hoke Smith's great victory in the 
Georgia Democratic primaries, because 
they know that we have worked "tooth 
and toe-nail" for Hoke Smith, in 
season and out. 

There were five candidates in the 
field, each with a newspaper or more 
back of him — and Hoke Smith had 
Watson's Magazine to boot. His 
chief opponent, Clark Howell, is 
editor of the Atlanta Constitution — a 
great paper, as all will concede. Yet 
here is the result : 
638 



Counties. Delegates. 

Hoke Smith 120 308 

R.B.Russell 10 24 

Clark Howell 8 16 

J. H. Estill 4 12 

J. M. Smith 3 6 

Now, we're not claiming that Wat- 
son's did it — but it certainly helped. 
Hoke Smith stood against the railroad 
gang and for the people. That was the 
prime requisite; but the people had 
to be told. And Watson's has circu- 
lated hundreds of thousands of copies 
in Georgia since the campaign began — 
perhaps not a county has been missed. 
The Atlanta Constitution has a big cir- 
culation in Georgia; it is a great paper 
everywhere. But it couldn't give its 
editor more than 8 lone counties out of 
145; while Hoke Smith, backed by the 
people, the Atlanta Journal and Wat- 
son's Magazine (both had many 
county papers back of them), had 120 
counties and 308 delegates — 124 more 
than enough to elect. 

That is surely a big enough victory 
to be modestly proud of. And we are. 

Mr. Watson made a speech at 
Thomson, Ga., his home town, early in 
August. In the course of that speech 
he said: 

" From across the ocean where W. J. 
Bryan is the honored guest of kings and 
statesmen comes the cabled word: 'I 
am more of a radical now than in 1896,' 
when he had the Populist nomination. 
And in this court-house, a few days ago, 
we heard the ablest Georgian that lives, 
the strongest man in this state, the 
Hon. Hoke Smith, tell these people if 
there be no other way by which we can 



ALONG THE FIRING LINE 



639 



control the corporations without the 
government ownership of railroads, 
then I am in favor of the government 
ownership of railroads. Thank God! 
thank God! That principle has tri- 
umphed, and good men of all parties 
are declaring for the people against the 
banded corporations who have been 
robbing them. 

"Ten or fifteen years ago W. J. 
Bryan could not indorse the principle 
of the public ownership of public utili- 
ties. With the very last public utter- 
ance which he made, at the Jefferson 
dinner, in the City of Chicago, Mr. 
Bryan declared, with the courage of a 
man who has intelligence enough to 
learn and brave enough to advance 
when he has learned, the time has come 
to declare in favor of the public owner- 
ship of public utilities. Therefore, in 
1908, to which we are all moving 
swiftly and surely, those of us who live 
to see it will live to see W. J. Bryan, 
the peerless Democratic leader of the 
hosts of Democracy, under the banner 
of the People's Party." 

Immediately afterward some press 
bureau at Washington sent out a 
bulletin which was copied by more than 
a hundred Democratic papers that 
reach this office, as follows: 

"Tom Watson of Georgia has re- 
turned to the Democratic fold and is 
welcomed as all honest voters are. 
With the Democrats successfully forc- 
ing reforms on an unwilling Congress, 
there is no need for a third party. 
There are thousands of Tom Watsons 
in every state who have doubtless come 
to the same conclusion that he has, 
that it is the duty of all reformers to 
array themselves under the Democratic 
banner and aid in the defeat of the 
party whose only slogan is 'stand pat 
and pass the hat.' " 

Mr. Watson made no pledges for 
1908. No sensible man ought to do so 
with respect to either of the old parties 
— because no man knows just how they 
will line up. We might all be glad to 
vote for Roosevelt in 1908 — if he'd tell 
us how to reform the spelling of his own 
name ; or we might be glad to vote for 
Bryan — if he'd require Ruth to dis- 



pose of that dachshund. But it's 
too early to pledge ourselves. Mr. 
Watson has always been a Jeffersonian 
Democrat, and you can count on him 
when Jeffersonian Democracy nomi- 
nates one of its own on its own plat- 
form. But he won't make a two-year 
advance pledge for a Parker-prayer-by- 
megaphone-platform-by-telegraph can- 
didate. 



Mr. Watson was a prophet in his 
Thomson speech. Last week (August 
25 to 31) was Bryan week in New 
York. Mr. Bryan was expected to 
arrive here after nearly a year's trip 
around the world, on August 30. Elab- 
orate preparations had been made for 
his reception in New York under the 
auspices of the Commercial Travelers' 
Anti-Trust League. Madison Square 
Garden, with a seating (and standing) 
capacity of something like 25,000, had 
been secured for the reception. 

I need not dwell on the particulars. 
There were nearly one hundred and 
twenty -five of my own brethren from 
Nebraska, the first to arrive — " Bryan's 
Home Folks" — and what they 
didn't do to arouse the curiosity of 
Father Knickerbocker would be much 
easier to write than to tell what they 
did. In passing, I believe both Ne- 
braskans and New Yorkers have now 
a better knowledge and opinion of each 
other. In that " Home Folks" delega- 
tion were bankers who could tell Wall 
Street a few things about an elastic 
currency; jurists as able as any in the 
Empire State; insurance men who 
could have told Hughes a few things 
he did not find out; boys who can 
throw a running noose better than any 
Mexican — and above all, men, real, 
manly men. 

Bryan came. Need I quote — what 
I can't translate — " veni, vidi, vici." 
He certainly came. He saw some- 
thing between 20,000 and 25,000 en- 
thusiastic admirers at Madison Square 
Garden. And he certainly conquered 
a majority of that 20,000 or 25,000 with 
his eloquent presentation of Populist 
principles. For he affirmed the quan- 



640 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE 



titative theory of money — but made 
no fetich of 16 to i; he stood for an 
income tax — not the single tax; and 
he came out boldly for public owner- 
ship of railroads in the following words: 

"I have already reached the conclu- 
sion that railroads partake so much of 
the nature of a monopoly that they must 
ultimately become public property 
and be managed by public officials in 
the interest of the whole community, 
in accordance with the well-defined 
theory that public ownership is neces- 
sary where competition is impossible. 
I do not know that the country is 
ready for this change ; I do not know 
that a majority of my own party 
favor it; but I believe that an in- 
creasing number of the members of 
all parties see in public ownership the 
sure remedy for discriminations be- 
tween persons and places and for the 
extortionate rates for the carrying of 
freight and passengers." 

Since then most of the New York 
papers have been trying to scare Bryan 
away from his Government ownership 
"fallacy." The New YorkWorld, espe- 
cially, has been almost in tears trying 
to show him what an enormous burden 
it would be for eighty million people 
to own the eleven or twelve billion 
dollars' worth of railroads. I never 
heard that any railroad realized its 
interest on bonds or dividends on 
stock from its stockholders; but fool- 
ishly supposed that the people who 
use the railroads (and who does not?) 
are the ones who pay such interest and 
dividends. Curious, isn't it, that some 
few hundred thousand railroad stock- 
holders are better equipped for owning 



the eleven or twelve billions of rail- 
roads than are all the seventy or eighty 
million people! It may be that one- 
sixth is bigger than unit y — but ' ' there's 
nothing like that in our family tree." 
If it's true, I've got to study Stoddard 
and Ray all over again. 

Maybe Bryan will back down in the 
face of this storm of newspaper protest 
— but I hate to think of it. Before 
the Parker incident in 1904, I should 
have said, "No; by the eternal gods, 
he'll stand by it." But his swallowing 
Parker for regularity's sake, after 
hiring a hall in Chicago to show the 
unfitness of Parker, rather keeps me 
guessing. Nevertheless, I'm willing 
to bet a cookie that in the next two 
years Mr. Bryan will have advanced 
the cause of public ownership many 
fold. The Democratic organization 
may be powerful enough to whip him 
into line in 1908 with some platform 
platitude about "control" — but I hope 
not. In any event, he will have edu- 
cated enough persons up to the idea 
that "ownership" 's the thing, so that 
all the millions who believe in govern- 
ment transacting public business and 
individuals transacting private busi- 
ness may get together and try to win. 
* * * * * * 

I don't say they can win. They can 
try. And even if they lose, they will 
have paved the way for success. For 
some party big enough to win will 
eventually take up the problem and 
solve it. 



^^ 




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By saving you a washwoman's wanes— or. if yon do your own washing, by Having 
your time — or, in either Case, by saving wear and tear on your clothes, my washer will 
save its own cost many times over. Thus it pays for itself. And you can pay mo 
for the washer by Heading me, each week for a few weeks, part of what it saves for 
you until the washer is paid for. I'm only too glad to trust any responsible party. 

And as this washer works hy natural motive power— helped by its own weight — 
you have to help it only a very little. It almost works of itself. 

I guarantee my 1900 Home 
Washer for 4 years and you 

can pay me 
by the week, 
or month (suit yourself)— out of what it saves for you. 

Just your name and address on a post card or in a letter 
will bring you my Big Illustrated Washer Book— I he finest 
ever printed. It is FREE. I send it postpaid by return 
mail on receipt of your request. It shows washers costing 
all the way from $12.75 for my new improved Gravity- 
working washer down to my "1900 Home V\ asher' shown 
here at $3 50. They are all tine washers. Orderany one you 
want ami pay font onmy "Pay-as-It-Saves for-You" Plan. 

$5,511 is less than is asked by any other concern, of 
known standing, for any kind of a washing machine. And— 
at that -other machines are only imitations of mine. My] 
Washer was not only the first— hut, for years, was the only 
washer of any standing. 1 sell more washers than all other com. 
cerns put together— Half of all the up-to-date familes in this 
country own a 1000 Washer. And why should you pay good money 
for an imitation washer when you can get the genuine— a "1900 
Home"— for less money. Remember you send no money. I 
gladly trust you. Address JR. F. Bieber, Manager 

OOOWasherCo. 79 Henry St. Binghamton, N.Y. 




mm ■ Stereopticons and Moving Picture Machines— all 
•"••J sizes, ail prices. Views illustrating timely subjects. 
ine thing for Church and "Home Entertainments. Men with 
nail capital make money giving public exhibitions. Illustrated 

tree gue McALLISTER MFG. OPTICIAN, *3&as£- 



Cor. lltK Street And Vniversity Pla.ce 

(One Block from Broadway Cars.) 



I lira 



nam. umr 



\ Modem FIKE-PROOF" Hotel— a dining ro 

excellent food and moderate prices. sp< 
c, Ite, 50c— Lunches, t<»p : and our Famous ( 



ROOMS, $1.00 

WITH PRIVATE BATH, $2.00 
WITH DETACHED BATH, $1.50 

Quiet and Comfort: Within easy walking distance of the (ireat 
epartment stores. Wanainaker's, two minutes : Siegel cooper's 
:lii minutes, etc. Easy access to all points of interest. Also close 
WHOLESALE DISTRICT. 

rhe Best Hotel Value in 
New York City 

Hide Book ofSew York City sent WtH K on roqiu'st. 

I O-AJJT SELL 

four Real Estate or Business 

NO MATTER WHERE LOCATED 

roperties and Business of all kinds sold quickly for cash 

in all parts of the United States Don t Wait. 

Write to-day describing what you have to 

sell and give cash price on same. 

IF YOU WAUT TO BUY 

ny kind of Business or Real Estate anywhere, at any 

price, write me vour requirements. I can 

save you time and money. 

DAVID P. TAFF, 

rHE LJ^TVT> 7>T A TV. 

415 KANSAS AVENUE, 
opeka, Kansas* 




LET ME SHOW YOU 



mi that is famous for 
rial Club Breakfasts, 
nurse Dinners, 75e. 



HOW TO MAKE MONEY 

(The same as I have shown over 4,000 others) 

No matter where you are located or what 
your former occupation, if you are honest 
and ambitious, I will teach you the Real 
Estate, Insurance and General Brokerage 
Business thoroughly by mail appoint you 

SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE 

of my Company (the largest in America), 
and assist you to become a prosperous and 

su.( ssful business man with an income of 

$3,000 to $5,000 annually. 
Unusual opportunity for men ivitbnnt capital to be» 
come independent for life. Valuable Book and full par* 
ficnlars l'KKK. Write today. Address either office. 

EDWIN R. MARDEN, President 

Nat'l Co-Operative Realty Co. 
123 Athenaeum BId£. „ 125 Maryland Bld(£ 
Chicago, 111. ° r Washington, D. C. 



A New Story of Great Interest 

By FREDERIC C. HOWE 

THE CONFESSIONS 
OF A MONOPOLIST 

is now running as a serial in THE PUBLIC, 
A Journal of Fundamental Democracy and a 
Weekly Narrative of History in the Making. 

LOUIS F. POST, Editor 

Published every Saturday in Chicago 

Subscription: $1.00 yearly; 50c. half-yearly; 25c. quarterly 

THE PUBLIC, First National Bank Buildg., 

CHICAGO. ILL. 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE ADVERTISER 



Classified Advertising 

The charge for advertisements appearing under this heading is 60 cents per agate line. 
No advertisement of less than 4 lines, or more than 10 lines, accepted. Allow 8 words to the 
line. Classified forms close 2d of month preceding date of issue. 



INVESTMENTS 



REAL ESTATE 



SEND FOR PROSPECTUS: \\ e are going to sell enough 
stock to build Cyanide Mill to treat our low grade ore. 
Fortv thousand tons waiting for mill and supply being 
abided to daily. Stock now 25 cents per share. Will be 
above $1 00 in twelve months. Company, has no debts. 
Endoised by everv one of our home banks. Rare chance 
for men with small capital to make big profits quickly. 
F. D. Tiffany, No. 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 

GUARANTEED MORTGAGE investments. Interest at 5 
4-10% & 6% From S1200 up. Gilt-edged properties. Mort- 
gages Insured. My reference is Hamilton Trust Co., Phila- 
delphia. Charles H. Buckley W. 38 So. Fortieth St., Phila- 
delphia. 

LOS ANGELES, CAU, first mortgages, 6 & 7% net, title 
guaranteed, papers all complete, delivered through your own 
bank. Investments, reports, and appraisals free. Bank 
references. 25 ys. exp. L. C. Crossmin, W. Chamber of 
Commerce Building. 

I HANDLE NOTHING BUT DIVIDEND PAYING se- 
curities, and invite your correspondence regarding any you 
may desire to buy, sell or exchange. List on application. 
H. L. McCauley, 1524 W. Che stnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

FOR SALE — 5% first Mortgage gold Bonds to net sf%, 
principal and semi-annual interest payable in New York — 
issued by a Water and Light Company with Liberal City 
franchise in one of the best towns in the South. Jas. Thomp- 
son, Walhal la, S. C. \ 

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES 



6% ON YOUR MONEY by local Building & Loan Ass'n 
14 years in business. Never had a loss, or failed to meet an 
obligation. Stock in force $750,000. Write for free literature. 
Jefferson Co unty B. & L. Association, Birmingham, Ala. 

10% if your money earns less, write us. We have an 
established national business with enormous profits. No 
risk. Investigate. V. M. Co ., Bon d Bld g.. Wash ington, D. C. 
- THERE ARE GOOD OPPORTUNITIES on the lecture 
and reading platform. Test your talent in a recital for Crit- 
icism in your locality. Write for plan. Edward Amherst 
Ott, 250 A. Sixty-first Street, Chicago, 111. 

LET US BE YOUR FACTORY. Hardware specialties 
manufactured under contract, models developed. We are 
specialists in patent articles. Prompt service, first-class 
workmanship, reasonable prices. America Co., T. W. Mo- 
mence, 111. 

TEN VALUABLE MONEY-MAKING Formulas sent for 
one dollar. Preparations that you can sell. That will pay 
big profits. W. Formulae Co., 83a Greenmount Ave., Balti- 
more, M d. 

"HOME COMPANION TOOL SET— No. 710— Special 
Offer 41 individual tools in hardwood case, sent on receipt of 
$5.00. Every tool needed by the home carpenter. W. 
Goode ll-Pratt Company, Greenfield, Mass. 

WANTED — Patented specialties of merit. "We have 
branch offices in the principal cities of Europe and agencies 
all over the world. Our correspondence is in eight languages. 
PoweT S-T-eialty C o.. T. W. Detroit. Mich. 

CUBA: Tropical Fruit plantation: Oranges, Grapefruit, 
Cocoanuts, Coffee; on ten years' time: profits enormous; 
Best investment of kind. By reliable, experienced men; 7 
years' experience in Cuban fruit growing; Agents wanted, 
either sex. Address, Buena Vista Fruit Co., 101 W. Tremont 
St.. Bos ton, Mass 

WE CAN SELL OR EXCHANGE YOUR BUSINESS or 
real estate no matter where located; or find any kind of Busi- 
ness or Real Estate for you anywhere in U. S. & Canada. 
Write, Fidelity Real Estate & Trust Co., C. Bee Bldg., 
Omaha, Neb. 

PATCHES OF TIMBER turned into big profits by our 
portable beltless combined sawmill and engine. Small capi- 
tal required; easy terms. Glean your county for bargains in 
timber. Lumber prices rising. Wm. Bartley & Sons, W. 
Bartley, N. J. 

WANTED A PARTNER WITH $25,000 to $50,000. We 
have an established and growing business, but lack capital to 
nush it. An investment of thousands will net millions. The 
investor must be a business man and a worker. Write for par- 
ticulars, and state fully amount you would invest, previous 
business experience, etc. Purifico Mfg. Co., B. Ashville, N. Y 



FOR SALE — 81,000 acre ranch, 15 miles from Santa Fe, 
N. M. 3000 irrigated. Gold and Coal on Ranch. Price 
S4.25 per acre, or S2.12* for half interest. U. S. Renne, 
Smithland , la. 

NEW ORLEANS BUSINESS PROPERTY. I have for 
sale nearly half a square fronting on three streets, near 
Canal Street and the new Frisco Terminal Station. Now 
covered with numerous small business houses and one pala- 
tial residence, The finest location in the city fi .r Commercial 
purposes. Can le bought for $1.80,000 co. Owner desires 
to leave this country permanently. Buy now and double 
vour money within five vears. j. M. LAN E , REAL 
ESTATE BROKER, 718MACHECA BUILDING, NEW 
ORLEANS, LA. _____ 

BUY A FARM IN PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY 
OR DELAWARE. The best States -for profitable farming 
soil adapted to a great variety ot crop; near markets that pa) 
best prices for your products; farm lands in three States my 
specialty — sold and bought; write for particulars. Rav 
mond C. Frick, 1 102 T. Real Estate Trust Building. Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

IOWA FARMS FOR SALE AND EXCHANGE. W 
have some of the best bargains in improved farms in Iowa 
Send for our new illustrated list. Northern Iowa Land Co. 
Independence. Iowa. Box T. W. 

BIG BARGAINS IN LAND for Investment or Home- 
seeker in Missouri, Kansas, Sunny Texas and Mississippi 
Large and small tracts. The Investors Realty Co., 696 W 
Hall Bldg., Kansas City, U. S. A. 

INVESTORS— HOME-SEEKERS— take notice. Wt 
have for sale 150,000 acres of the richest improved and un- 
improved land in Indian Territory and the Southwest 
Fertile soil — ideal climate — has no competitor for the raisin* 
of stock and the growing of the various fruits and grains 
Devore-Birkeland & Co.. T. W. 1 31 La Salle St.. Chicago, 111. 

FARMING ALONG GULF IN TEXAS PAYS $500 ai 
acre. Will deed that land for Si 5 an acre on payments 
Artesian water; Fine climate; Below Frost line; Have large 
body ready for Colonization, which will treble in value withli 
18 months. Immigration Agts. Rock Island R. R. Excur 
sion $25.00. Oklahoma Texas Land Co., 511 W. Reape 
Block. Chicago. 

$;oo PER ACRE PROFIT IS THE RECORD for ou- 
farmers near Kingsville on the Gulf Coast line, Texas. th< 
Winter Vegetable Garden of America and the finest cottor 
land in Texas. Send for literature. The National Land Co.: 
92 LaSalle St., Chicago, 111. Box W. 

A BEAUTY HOME of 2 acres. Finest climate. Nea-I 
Frisco and University, only S500. Secure it till you can in 
vestigate by deposit of $25, returnable. Easy payments' 
Commissions executed. Greater San Francisco Corp'n 
Mayfiel d, Cal. 

CALIFORNIA IRRIGATED land is best for home and in 1 
vestment 5.000 acres just secured in richest section. Tei; 
acres ample Long time — ample water. Level and clean 
Perpetual water right. Extra inducements to those wh ; 
improve S ,0 to Sso per acre. W . H. Wise, nS T W 

Hollman Bldg ., Los Angeles, Cal. 

' REAL ESTATE BUSINESS SELF-TAUGHT. I teaclj 
California methods. Best in world. Sure money- makers" 
My course shows how. Particulars and map Los V . ■ ■ 
free. Write today. W.A. Carney, Stimson Block, Los Angeles 

(' \1 IPORNIA LAND S1.00 ACRE. Balance cnti 
chase $1.00 week for each 5 acres. No taxes No "iteresti 
5 acre tracts. Level, rich, clear. Ready to , 
irrigation. Perpetual water right. Immediate p 
given Particulars, Maps, Photographs foi 
Stevinson, Colony, 70 * W. Van Ness Avenue, San Fr a:; 

DON'T BUY REAL ESTATE of any kind till you | 
plan and particulars regarding the New Fruitland Colony C<> 
of Georgia on the G. S. & Fla. R. R Have great bargains t 
offer Town lots, Residences and Business $1 5.00. Acres: 
low as S7 50 adjoining town. ; crops year averaging Si 50 tl 
$400 tier acre. Send name. You will hear of trnri 
never knew before. Fruitland Colony t o., W 125 Clark 51 
Chicago. Ill G. S _ Fla. R R __, A Macon, Pa. 

$7o 0.1 down and $10.00 for nine consecutive months bit' 
a lot in Arcadia. Fla . the booming county seat ot the greatej 
' Florida " Orange & Cattle region in the state. Remit at on«! 
to get in this offer. Address, R. C. Selvidge, Brandon, Mis 



WATSON'S MAGAZINE ADVERTISER 



Classified Advertising 



LAWYERS 



SAMUEL W. WILLIAMS, Attorney at Law, Baecher 
Block Vincennes, Indiana, Practice in all the 
courts. Refer to German National Bank, Vincennes, 
Ind. 

DEROOS BAILEY, Lawyer, English Block, Muskogee, 
Indian Territory. Commercial and Corporation Law a 
specialty. References: First National Bank, City National 
Bank, and Bank of Muskogee. 



BOOKS 



THE FOUR POWERS OF EARTH. Free land. So- 
called science uncovered. In one volume. Price 20 cents. 
Will advance book to any address postage prepaid. J. Harvey 
Jenkins, Thomasville. Ga. 

OFFICIAL HISTORY ' Christian Endeavor in All Lands" 
by Rev. Clark, Founder and President. Wonderful Record, 
25 years, 66,772 branches, 3,500,000 members. Large book, 
62 s pages, 200 illustrations. Needed in every Christian 
home. Beautifully bound. Only S2.25 postpaid. Offers 
great opportunity for agents. Particulars and terms free. 
Write todav. Premier Publishing Co., 630 W. Chestnut 
St.. Philadelphia. 

MALE AND FEMALE HELP WANTED ~ 

"FIRE CHIEF," Latest, Most Effective Extinguisher. 
Acts instantly without damage to surroundings. Handsome, 
Light, inexpensive. Demand universal. S40 per Week to 
High Class Competent Agents. Write today for terms and 
territorv. Western Fire Appliance Co., 866 T. The Spitzer, 
Toledo, "O, 

AGENTS WANTED to sell the best Kettles in the World 
for Cooking, Steaming, Straining and Preserving Food of all 
kinds: no more burned or scalded hands, no more food 
wasted. Sample and territory free. For particulars write to 
American Specialty Stamping Co., Johnstown, Pa., Dept. T.W. 

SAFETY DOOR LOCK can be used without tools on any 
door without scratching. Proof against burglars, sneak 
thieves, and pass keys. Pocket size, 2 5 cents. Exclusive 
territory to good agents. Large profits. Send for ramples 
and terms. Safety Door Lock Co., Seattle, Wash. Dept. S.W 

YOU CAN SELL PORCELA to every bathtub owner in 
the U. S. — and th?re are millions of them. Easy to -ell; 
liberal profits to bright agents. Porcela is the only cleansing 
preparation that preserves the lustre of the porcelain enamel 
while cleaning it. Porcela cleans everything from kitchen to 
bath-room. Write for information to-day. Porcela Com- 
pany, Sales Dept. P. W. Pittsburgh, Pa. 

AGENTS WANTED to handle our line of high grade 
Novelties. Great sellers for cigar stores and newsdealers. 
Large profits. Catalogue of ?oo and wholesale prices free. 
Write to-day . National Mfg. Co., Box 1888, T. Norfolk, Va. 

THE HEARWELL TELEPHONE ATTACHMENT 
makes you hear better and shuts off outside noises. An 
agency is open for you whether you have a store or are em- 
ploye 1. Big opportunity. Hearwell Co., W. 1 ^09 Arch 
St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



MOTION PICTURE MACHINES, Film Views, Magic Lan- 
terns, Slides and similar Wonders For Sale. Catalogue Free. 
We also Buy Magic Picture Machines, Films, Slides, etc. 
R. Harbach, 809 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

MOVING PICTURES. MONEY MADE FAST and 
easily with our outfits. We also make Magic Lanterns, 
Slides, etc. Send for catalogue. A. Moore-Bond Co., 106 
Franklin St., Chicago, 111. 

OPTICAL GOODS AT WHOLESALE. Genuine Gold 
Filled Spectacles (not plated), fitted with first quality peri- 
scopic lens. Si .00. Send for free catalogue and ocular- 
meter to test your eyes. Jena Optical Co., Dept. W. 
Chicago, 111. 



THE DEAF CAN HEAR WITH THE ACOUSTICON. 
Instruments for individual use. Churches equipped. Thou- 
sands in use. 40 page cat. free. Acoustic Co., W. 1265 
Broadway, New York. 

PANAMA CANAL POST CARDS:— Showing the big 
steam shovels and dredges in actual operation. Views of the 
canal and the dense tropical jungles in colors. Most interest- 
ing views ever printed. Set of 35 different Si .00 mailed 
from Panama. D. E. Sanders, W. Park Bldg , Boston, 
Mass. 

OUR PLANT is specially equipped to handle commercial 
work, enabling us to do it more economically than others. 
We have envelopes, bill heads, cards and statements Si. 30 
per thousand up. Samples of these and better grades prompt- 
ly mailed to business men. We also have special price list 
which includes delivery to far-away points at low rate-:. 
Orders promptlv shipped; get our figures for other work. L. 
Fink & Sons, Printers, 5th & Chestnut, T. W. Philadel- 
phia. Pa. 

INDEPENDENT TELEPHONE LINES. HAVE A 
telephone service of your own. We furnish full particulars to 
responsible parties for building and equipping. Physicians, 
Farmers and local Merchants especially desirable. Anyone 
can operate under our instructions. Write for FREE book to 
Cadiz Electric Co., 86 C. C. C. Building, Cadiz, Ohio. 

STOOPING SHOULDERS— A habit cured without har- 
ness or binding braces. The Vitality Suspender scientifically 
constructed to make large, strong muscles of back carry 
weight of trousers — through the unconscious law of equipoise 
— the chest is thrown out with abdomen back — insuring free 
heart circulation — good lung action— deep breathing — nat- 
ural digestion. A Suspender not a harness. Sent by mail 
postpaid one dollar. The Perfection Mfg. Co., Box 90, W. 
Girard, Ohio. 

A CHECKING BANK ACCOUNT FOR ONE DOLLAR. 
Exceptional facilities offered parties desiring out-of-town 
banking accommodations. Unrestricted checking accounts 
opened upon deposit of Si or more. Loans and collections. 
Address Banking House, Box 10 1, T.W. Allentown, Pa. 

PLAY WRITING IS A PROFESSION. Prominent 
Dramatist will give full course of practical instruction by cor- 
respondence and will place available plays for students. 
Address Dramatist, Box 209, E. Madison Square Post Office, 
New York. 



WANTED 



ADVERTISERS to use space in the 

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT of 
WATSON'S MAGAZINE, which 

reaches the most prosperous class of people 

in the Southern States, Men and Women who read and preserve each number, 

a condition which materially adds to the life of the advertising it carries. 

CLASSIFIED FORMS close 2d of month preceding date of Issue. Send copy 

at once for the November Number. 
REMITTANCE covering charge for insertion MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

was the radical of his day. Many of the views expressed in his letters and 
speeches would strike a "good Republican" of today as extremely radical. 

ARE YOU ACQUAINTED 

Wth the great commoner's views on political and religious liberty, on alien immi- 
gration, on the relation of labor and capital, on the 
colonization of negroes, on free labor, on lynch law, 
on the doctrine that all men are created equal, on 
the importance of young men in politics, on popular 
sovereignty, on woman suffrage? 

All of his views are to be found in this edi- 
tion of "LINCOLN'S LETTERS AND AD- 
DRESSES," the first complete collection to be pub- 
lished in a single volume. Bound in an artistic green 
crash cloth, stamped in gold. Printed in a plain, 
readable type, on an opaque featherweight paper. 

For $1.65, sent direct to this office, we will en- 
ter a year's subscription to WATSON'S 
MAGAZINE and mail a copy of LINCOLN'S 

LETTERS AND ADDRESSES, postage pre- 
paid. This handsome book and Watson's 
Magazine — both for only $ 1 .65. Send to-dry 
Do it now. 




TOM WATSON'S MAGAZINE 






21 West 42d St., New York City 




P. E. SHERMAN, PREST. 



[f You Can Sell Goods 

You cannot find another proposition that 
guarantees you as handsome an income as 
this one. 

First of all we manufacture the finest line of razors, both Safety and Old 
Style, in the world. 

And Second, we have a plan to aid you in selling them that absolutely 
puts an end to competition. 

Not another razor maker does or can make this offer, because by our plaH, 
every sale depends entirely on the merit of the goods, making it impossible to 
sell a defective article. 

HERE IS OUR PLAN: 
Nineteen out of every twenty men shave or are shaved. Those who shave 
themselves are always on the lookout for a better razor than the one they use. 
hid there is not a patron of the barber but would prefer to shave himself if he could find a razor he could use. 
Our plan is this : — 

We will assign you a territory, we will allow you to furnish every man 
n your territory who shaves with a razor, either Safety or Old Style, for 
i Seven Days' Free Trial. 

He need not deposit a penny. If, after the trial, he is satisfied in every way, he can purchase the 
azor for cash or on the installment plan. 

Every sale must depend entirely on the quality of our razor. No need of argument and persuasion on 
'our part. Simply show the man one of our attractive outfits and induce him to accept the free trial offer. 

Tell hirr that he will never need to strop or hone one of 
tur blades — neither will he be put to any expense in having 
t done. 

Tell him that with every razor we issue an absolute 
;uarantee to keep the blades in perfect condition for all time. 

Every man who shaves is susceptible to so attractive a proposition. 

You need not possess marked ability as a salesman — .any man can 
ell such a razor on such plans. 

All we require is that you furnish first-class references and express 
i determination to work hard and faithfully. 

Let us send you further particulars regarding this exceptional 
)pportunity. But you must write us at once if you would be certain 
)f securing a territory in your vicinity, as this and 
>ther advertisements are certain to bring us a mass 
)f inquiries. 

One man in three hours secured a razor for his 
nvn use free besides §14.50 cash just among his 
mmediate iriends; one agent made $229.50 first 
26 days — others making 350.00 to $100.00 weekly. 
\'II or part of your time profitably employed ; write im- 
nediatelv before territory is all gone for Booklet, Ref- 
erences, Testimonials, and Special Proposition. 

ADDRESS 

AGENCY SUPERINTENDENT 

Sherman & Company, inc., 

281-283 Water St., New York City 




. 



Shoes 



SAVED 20 TIMES ITS COST" 



.0 



e 



FOR 

^3.50 

For MEN 

In Fractional Sizes 
at Factory Price. 

We fit you perfectly and save you the 
jobber's and retailer's profits. The 
sole of a Reliance shoe is made of oak 
bark-tanned leather, tough and dur- 
able, and costs as much as the sole of 
any 5 6oo shoe. Every piece of leather 
in every Reliance shoe is up to the 
same high standard. The workman- 
ship is the product of the most skilled 
shoemakers. Reliance shoes are made 
on custom lasts and handsomely fin- 
ished. In wear and shape-reiaining 
qualities, foot comfort and style, we guarantee the Reliance 
at $3 50 equal to any S600 shoe made. The graceful curve 
of the heel prevents slipping up and down, and the narrow 
[ shank properly supports the weight and gives the foot 
absolute comfort. If you'll investigate Reliance shoes, you 11 
wear no other make. Be fair to yourself and do it now. We 
fully satisfy you in every way or return your money. 

Write for our free stylebook and measurement blank. 
Delivered, express prepaid, 93.75. 

Reliance Shoe Company, 

40 Main St.. Friendship, N. Y. 



615 

Patent Colt 

Rlurher. 
$3.75 delivered 




THE IMPROVED 



ton 
Garter 



WORN ALL OVER 
THE WORLD 

REFUSE ALL 
SUBSTITUTES 
OFFERED YOU 



_ The Name is 
stamped on ever 
loop — 




CUSHION 
BUTTON 

CLASP 

LIES FLAT TO THE LEG— NEVER 
SLIPS, TEARS NOR UNFASTENS 

Sample pair, Silk 50c., Cotton 25c. 
Mailed on receipt of price. 

GEO. FROST CO., Makers 
Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 

ALWAYS EASY 



"1 am writing this." savsC. F. Parmelee, 
Highlands, >.J., - by the light ol one of 
jour Angle Lamps. In fact, 1 would not 
think of using any other light. The; are 
THE lamps. h»ery one who has 
mine is impressed with them. Why, 1 
ha>e sated at least 20 times their eoat 
In oil, burner, chimneys and -cuss words.' " 




The ANGLE LAMP 



The Angle Lamp is not an improvement on the old style lamp, ., 
but an entirely new principle of oil lighting which has made common t 
kerosene (or coal oil) the most satisfactory of all lighting meth- ds. j 
Safer and more reliable than gasoline, or acetylene, yet as convenient I 
to operate as gas or electricity. 

Tue Angle Lamp is lighted and extinguished likeeas. May be turned 
high or low without odor. No smoke, no danger. Filled while lighted 
and without moving. Requires filling but once or twice a week. It 
floo Is a room with i's beautiful, soft, mellow light that has no equal. 

WRITE FOR OUR CATALOG "27" and our pr. position for a 

30 DAYS' FREE TRIAL 

Write for our Catalog "27" listing 32 varieties of The Angle Lamp 
from S1.80 up, now — before you forget it— before you turn this leaf— for 
it gives you the benefit of our ten years' experience with all light- 
ing methods, 

THE ANGLE MFG. CO., 78-80 Murray Street. NEW YORK 



MINNEN'J 



Borated Talcum 

TOILET 
POWDER 



The Mermen Caddie 

offers instant relief from chaps 

and skin roughness which keen 

fall winds bring tooutof door folks. 

MEJTNEN'S BORATED 

TALCUM POWDER 

soothes and heals all chafing and 

chapping, and is put up in non- 

refillable box — Mennen's face on 

the cover guarantees it's genuine. 

For sale everywhere, or by 

mail for 25 cts. 

GERHARD 
MENNENC0. 
Newark. N.J. 

"Try Mm. 

nen'l VilUt 

Ta hum 

Powdtr."